Shoes

I went into a shoe store today to look for a pair of black flats.  I found a pair I liked and pulled out the box for my size.  The box contained a right shoe only.   I tried it on, liked it, decided to buy it.  I looked for the left shoe on display, but it wasn't. So I pulled out another box of the same style and size.  Right shoe only. No left.  I pulled out another random box.  Right shoe only.  No left.  I asked the guy stocking the shelves in the next aisle and he said he would go to the back room and obtain the left shoe for me, which he did.  I asked the girl about it when I paid for my shoes.  She said they have to take out the left shoes now because so many pairs are stolen and this helps to slow down theft.  How sad that some people need to go into a shoe store and steal the shoes - because they can't afford them?  Because they can?  Because it is fun? Because they think shoes are overpriced anyway?  Just rhetorical questions.


I posted this on Facebook yesterday after a stop at Shoe Dept in Monticello.  I was curious about responses.  What I read this morning was kind of sad.  I'm still not sure of the reason, whether it is out of necessity or to see if someone can get away with it or just not having enough money.  What is sad to me is the lack of the difference between right and wrong.

My dad was 19 when he graduated from high school.  He graduated 13 years after he started.  He  was very smart, and he wasn't held back and there was no need to repeat a grade.  One year he didn't go to school.  There wasn't enough money for all of he children in his family to have new shoes so Aunt Mikdred got the shoes that year and went to school.  The next year Dad wore those shoes and he was able to go.  This was in the late 1920s, so times and products were different then.  But how sad for Dad, for Aunt Mikdred, and for Grandma and Grandpa that they couldn't afford shoes for everyone,  I also thought about Dad not going to school, which is sad in itself, but the next year wearing his sister's shoes?

They would never have thought about stealing shoes.  I also remember the Union coming to the Little Brown House during a strike at Christmas time.  They were delivering food baskets and gifts for the children of those workers on strike so they could have a nice Christmas.  Dad sent them away.  He told them his wife had canned food for us, we had meat from butchering, and she had planned in advance for our gifts.  Maybe another family in need could use the food and gifts.  I remember I was sad, because whatever the gifts were I was sure I would like them, but dad explained why he did that. We work for what we have.  We plan ahead.  If we can't pay for it, we don't need it.

In the last few days another story came across the news.  One of the trustees in our county was charged with embezzlement.  Several checks were written for Cash over a period of time with no receipts to verify the need for that money to be taken out of the township funds.  Because the trustee had access to the money, and she must have needed extra cash for some reason, she wrote checks and took money that wasn't hers for her own use. Wrong.  I recall times when Gary had power over various check books -- the Medaryville Lions, the District 25A when his dad was District Governor, St. Marks Lutheran Church. If an unexpected bill came, such as for a car repair or something one of the girls needed for school, never, never did it occur to him or to me to use some of that money from one of those accounts, even if it would have been easy to "borrow" an amount and repay it later.  We never did that with our farm account money or with his folks' expenses when we bought groceries for them or picked up meds at the drugstore.  We could have taken extra for us, but that is dishonest, unethical, and just not right.

So back to the shoes.  If someone needs shoes so badly that he or she needs to switch old ones for new, right there in the shoe store, then consider other options.  What about Goodwill?  The Salvarion Army?  Walmart?   There has to be another way.  If they are stealing just to do it, for fun, or because they can, then they need a wake up call about their values. Sad that this is the direction we are heading.