My parents were divorced when I was four, and the arrangement made between them was to split the time, so that my sister, brother, and I would spend our weekends and summers with my father in Mineral Point, and the rest of the time we would go to school in Madison. Completely out of my control, it made it difficult to see school friends on the weekends, or develop relationships with small town friends without being in school with them. On the upside it enabled me to take credit for importing big city fashions into the small town, and get out of doing things I didn’t want to do with the city kids.
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One Sunday before Sunday school, I decided to wear one of my black Reebok high tops along with a white Reebok high top; a style that I had seen some kids wearing at Lincoln (Elementary School) around the time when Criss-Cross, the twin kid-rappers were popular, wearing their clothes backwards and all that. So I wore them and we sang, bided our time until we were let out. No one had said a word to me about the shoes, but that was not unusual as most Sundays I passed through as quietly as possible.
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Last fall I attended the wedding of an old friend from Mineral Point. At the wedding I talked to Troy, an acquaintance while growing up, about our shared experiences, and he mentioned the mismatched shoes as something that he had always wondered about. I explained myself in the same way that I had been prepared to explain myself back then, that I couldn’t find the other shoe. In writing this I realize I haven’t really earned much perspective on this phenomenon.
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One Sunday before Sunday school, I decided to wear one of my black Reebok high tops along with a white Reebok high top; a style that I had seen some kids wearing at Lincoln (Elementary School) around the time when Criss-Cross, the twin kid-rappers were popular, wearing their clothes backwards and all that. So I wore them and we sang, bided our time until we were let out. No one had said a word to me about the shoes, but that was not unusual as most Sundays I passed through as quietly as possible.
_
Last fall I attended the wedding of an old friend from Mineral Point. At the wedding I talked to Troy, an acquaintance while growing up, about our shared experiences, and he mentioned the mismatched shoes as something that he had always wondered about. I explained myself in the same way that I had been prepared to explain myself back then, that I couldn’t find the other shoe. In writing this I realize I haven’t really earned much perspective on this phenomenon.
