Something I love about Flagstaff weather:  we may get a nasty storm coming through, but the next day it’s sunny and beautiful and all of the snow melts away.  I have heard that we average more snow a year than most northern cities but because of the fact that we get so much sun, you would never know it.

It’s a glorious day out today.

—

As I’ve said previously, we were poor and homeless before anyone ever talked about the national crisis of those things.  As a kid, though, the only time you really know that you’re poor is when you can’t afford the same things as the other kids you’re hanging around or if you somehow look different than them because your clothes are frayed or older styles.

I remember my first pair of Nike tennis shoes.  Nikes were it.  Everyone wore Nikes and HASH jeans when I was pre-teen/early teen.  If you didn’t have those, you weren’t anyone.

Most of the girls I know wore white leather Nikes with a blue swoosh.  They were expensive.  Even back then, I think they were close to $50 a pair and my parents would never be able to justify spending that kind of money on tennis shoes even if they had that kind of money to spend.

I dreamt of those white leather Nikes.  To this day, I can see them.  They were glorious. 

Michelle had a pair of those.  Michelle was the person I looked up to.  She dressed well.  She had all of the right things.  She set the tone for our age bracket at school.  Michelle was as much “it” as Nikes and HASH jeans were.

We shopped at Kmart.  We didn’t shop at the mall like others could.  We didn’t go to the big department stores.  We usually got things on bluelight special and at closeout clearances.  We didn’t beg for things that couldn’t be bought.  We were those quiet kids in the store that tried things on quickly and got out quickly because Mom knew exactly what she needed.

One day, in the midsts of all of the racks of shoes, I saw them.  In between black patent fake-leather and shoes that resembled Keds, I saw them.  That glorious music came on (you know…the music that signifies something god-like is in the air…horns and strings played).  A light shown from above and illuminated them.

Neon green with a yellow swoosh.  Canvas.  Nikes in a Kmart.   Seriously.  Nothing like this had EVER happened.  Nikes in a Kmart.  At a price that was similar to other shoes.

Nikes.

It seems so funny now (especially since I rarely wear sneakers and don’t like how they feel on my feet).  At the time, though, I was overjoyed.

Nikes.

I bought my first pair of Nikes that day.  They were so ugly (and that’s probably why they were at Kmart!).  But they were mine.

Michelle even complimented me on them (probably because she was kind and polite and my friend and knew how much a pair of Nikes meant to me).

They weren’t hand-me-downs.  They were new.

My first pair of Nikes.  Ugly, yes.  But they were mine.