Retirement party

There's a life coach who tries to help you simplify your world, and when she's urging you to declutter, she says you should thank your old, washed-up items for their service as you discard them. But please do discard them! It's in that spirit that today I bid a fond farewell to a pair of Rockport shoes that I've been wearing extensively for more than 30 years. I also welcome a replacement pair, just out of the box.

I bought the old ones at the downtown Portland Nordstrom, back in the days when they sold Rockport. One of the selling points was that the uppers were so sturdy that you could have them resoled over and over. Which I proved true! I mailed them an outfit in Calfornia and had the soles redone. I did this at least twice, maybe three times. They came out great each time.

The real reason for abandoning these babies is not that they've worn out, but rather that I've outgrown them. Your feet change as you get older, and mine are now at least half a size bigger than they were when I purchased the zapatos decades ago. That was not something I was thinking about when I walked out of Nordstrom with the box under my arm.

Nordstrom eventually stopped selling Rockport, and the Ecco shoes I bought there later weren't really suitable for the resole deal. The guy in California said he could do it, but the Ecco uppers and the new Vibram soles wouldn't stay attached very long. Those shoes arrived at the Arlington landfill a long time ago.

Nowadays you can buy on line, direct from Rockport, and the shoes are cheap, about half the price of a good pair of running shoes. And so I'm not expecting the new ones to ever be reworked. They certainly won't be in use 30 years from now. At least not on my feet.

But anyway, adios, old brown shoes! And thank you.