Knot Then

At Roberta's helpful suggestion, I've begun (within the past year) always tying my sneaker laces in double-knots.  I otherwise have a problem keeping them tied.  It became embarrassing when twice during a single walk her her I've have to stop to retie them.  I wondered if my laces were of the extra lubricated variety.

Laces are annoying.  Once your shoe becomes untied, that's it - you've already lost.  You look stupid with your laces untied and stupid bending over to tie them.  No amount of cool can save that - Jame Bond's laces never came undone.

I wore Velcro Keds until I was ten years old. I only stopped then because they no longer made Keds in my size.  So, at that time I was then ten and I still hadn't learned to tie my shoelaces yet.  It's not that I had a learning disability preventing me from learning.  I was just caught in a catch-22, where I never practiced tying shoelaces because I always wore Velcro, and because I never learned to tie my laces, at each trip to the shoe store I'd again select the Velco Keds (which I liked anyway).

Eventually, I outgrew kids sizes and Velcro was no longer an option.  I remember that spring recess in the fifth grade on my very first day wearing the lace-up white Reebok's I was forced into.  I felt like I stepped out on a tightrope without a safety net.  I stood off to the side of the playground that day.  I was too afraid to run because I knew that if I accidentally shook my laces loose, I'd have no way to re-tie them.  I'd be helplessly unlaced and exposed as the fifth grader who was unable tie his own laces.  In rare precociousness (in determination if not skill-set), that very night I asked my mother to teach me once and for all and we sat down and practiced until I finally got it.

My current work shoe.  Trying to  keep it classy with a single knot, but undermined by the clownish excess lace material.

Velcro shoes are used now by seniors unable to bend over to tie their laces.  Life sometimes runs full circle.  I'll look forward to strapping on my Keds, a reacquainted friend, for a few last walks together.