Recent additions: August 3rd “Fit for Loss”, “Too drunk to care”, and 2 additions to “Fashion Shows”; June 12th “Abyss in Paris”, “Big League Loss”, “Shoe Swiper!”.
The event took place in early July of 2001, and presumably the girl was in her airline uniform: white blouse, scarf, perhaps a navy blue jacket, navy blue mini-skirt, light-colored pantyhose, and black leather pumps, most possibly medium height, thick heels, so fashionable nowadays with flight attendants.
On that day, she was assigned to meet an incoming aircraft and make sure all passengers are unloaded safely. She waited on the aircraft in the so-called finger, the long moving tube that gets hooked to aircraft door to unload passengers directly into terminal. She was, yes, shoe playing when she stood at the edge of finger, as it approached to aircraft door, and the door was being opened from inside the aircraft. In a sudden tilt of finger, one shoe slipped off totally and after bouncing back from floor, fell on the concrete pavement of apron, possibly some 15 feet below. She saw the shoe sitting on the apron right below. But as passengers had already started coming out, and she had to oversee them, she decided to pick it up a few minutes later, when all passengers were off-board. This was a large airliner, possibly with several hundred passengers onboard, and unloading must have taken 5-10 minutes or more. She had to stand in front of all offloading passengers on one pump. My imagination tells she must have tried to hide her bare foot in nylons behind her lucky shod foot. (What this may have looked like) Anyone hardly realized what had happened, until one of elderly couple asked for a wheelchair. She had to take them to confined spot to the side where she has been standing, and ask for a wheelchair on her radio. In moving to the middle, her bare foot became exposed. Admittedly, she was very embarrassed to see a few passengers staring at her bare foot as they walked by. All passengers were finally off-board, and she had to spend perhaps a few more minutes with the elderly couple, until the wheelchair arrived. By that time, elderly couple had also realized the abnormality in her feet, and as curious as they were, they asked how come she ended up in such an embarrassing situation. She had to quickly tell her story. Finally the elderly couple was gone with their wheelchair and advising her to look after her shoes better next time. Finally, she was able to walk down the stairs rapidly to pick up her missing shoe, which must have been sitting on the apron all alone for 15-20 minutes by then. But, to her awe, her pump was not where she had seen it landing. She searched around furiously, but could not find it; then, ran toward the ground crew working beneath the aircraft. They told her with a smile on the face that they did not see her shoe, and most probably, it was picked up by one of the passing-by apron clearence guys, who are tasked with removing any loose objects on apron, because those could be blown off by jet exhaust and pose danger. She looked around and made a last effort wondering around on one shoe to find any of those guys. But, too late, she thought in frustration. Having a few more hours to work on that day, she had to go back continue working, one shod! Presumably, she had to climb stairs up, go through the finger, and walk through a crowded airport, probably in very fast steps, pretending that nothing was wrong… Logically enough, she did not remove her remaining shoe: in case of an unfortunate encounter with one of her superiors, it would have been a lot more difficult to justify walking around barefoot, whereas a single missing shoe was obvious sign of unlucky accident, and deserved being helped or forgiven. Arriving at the airline desk where she is normally seated, she had to put off with questions and all sorts of teasing by colleagues. She embarrassingly placed a few phone calls to apron guys asking for her lost shoe, but nothing came out. A few female colleagues offered help, by lending pair of spare shoes. But, being quite a tall girl, her feet were big, and offered shoes too small. With some help from friends, she managed to spend remaining few hours of her shift sitting behind her desk, her bare foot always confined. When her shift was over, she had to walk through the entire length of terminal on one shoe again, and took the airline shuttle bus to the city center. Upon arriving there, she decided to take a cab to go home, rather than riding her usual means of transport, a crowded public bus. I imagine she hurried to the nearest cab station with her bare foot stepping on concrete pavement, and must have felt embarrassed because of curious stares. She finally grabbed a cab and rushed back home to put behind this unpleasant day. The missing shoe never turned up.The cab stopped on the busiest main avenue in downtown, just across the building where she was supposed to go. As the cab had blocked the right lane and the cars behind had already begun honking, she hastily paid driver, got her bill, hurriedly stepped out, her right leg first, and slammed the door. As the cab moved, she put her suspended left foot on the ground and instantly felt cold pavement. She looked down in panic to see that her left pump was missing. Obviously, as she pulled her leg out of the cab in a hurry, her left pump had slipped off and fallen in the cab.
She immediately looked for the cab, which had already covered some 50-60 feet by now. Luckily, it was slowing down for a traffic light - a red one. Without much hesitation, she started running with only one shoe and tip-toeing with the other foot, to catch the cab waiting for the light to turn green. That was a crowded sidewalk, and some of the people had seen the whole episode right from the beginning. She felt very stupid and embarrassed. When she was some 10-15 feet away from the cab, she saw in despair, the traffic light turn green, and the cab with her left pump dash away. "Damn", she thought, "I am stranded on the city’s busiest avenue with a single shoe." She had only minutes to make it to her appointment, and the thought of going there with a missing pump was terrifying. Besides, the weather was real cold and sidewalk she tiptoed was rapidly turning wet. Her left foot was already freezing, and she thought she could not go on for the rest of the day like this. So, she quickly reached for her mobile phone, called the people she was supposed to meet, and cancelled the appointment saying a real emergency came up. Then, she walked to the traffic light where she had failed to catch the cab, crossed the six-lane avenue to get another cab on the opposite sidewalk. Yet, her embarrassment for the day was not over: crossing the avenue at the traffic light, she had to walk one shoe one, one shoe off through the eyes of waiting drivers. She could see some of them starring at her feet, obviously to her left foot missing a pump. At last, she made it to the other side, and has got a cab not before too long to go home.She wore on that business trip, a pair of beige suede pumps, with thin and wide 4-inch heels, and mildly squared toes at front. Unbelievably, one of them vanished in hotel room on second day of her stay. As she was ready to get out that morning to meet her boss and colleagues in the lobby, she dipped her right foot in right pump, but left pump was not in sight. She checked everywhere tiptoeing on left foot, first calmly, then in growing frustration. She checked even under the bed and furniture. But, her left pump had unbelievably disappeared in that small hotel room. As her boss called from the lobby telling everybody was waiting for her, she had to slip into her pair of trendy, dark red leather, 2-inch platform mules with open toes. She had brought them to wear in hotel room as slippers, and to also use them when getting out on free time. In fact, she had worn them during previous afternoon and early evening going out for a walk around the city. And, that was the only time frame when her pumps were left unattended in the room.
As she wore her mules as a replacement for her pumps, she knew their color would not match that of her clothes and nylons, but there was no time to change and she joined her colleagues wearing her eye-catching red platform mules. Her male colleagues did not miss the opportunity to comment on her mules, and what a conservative business environment Switzerland was for that kind of "liberal" footwear. She was too embarrassed to tell them what had actually happened. During meetings, she tried her best not to expose her mules, thereby spending most of the day sitting. Back to hotel in the evening, housekeeping had neatly arranged her room. But, her right pump still sat all alone on the floor. She was determined this time to find the missing left pump. She searched every corner of her room for almost an hour, inside drawers, confined corners of closets, and even bathtub. But, she could not find the missing left pump. Since she was worried about colleagues teasing her, she decided to keep this odd incidence to herself, and did not place a complaint with the hotel. She had to leave next morning wearing her red mules again. Her beloved pump, only right one that is, was packed in her luggage. Her explanation of the strange incidence: one of the housekeeping or room service guys (or perhaps, gals) with a touch of shoe fetishism must have really liked her high-heels, and could not resist taking one. She puts no blame on him (or her): that was a very sexy and gorgeous piece of footwear.She wore on that day a pair of nice, brand-new (first time she wore them) slides bought in Brazil. The shape is reminiscent of a platform shoe, but height is only 1.5" at heels 1" at the front. Color is darkish mustard. They are made of leather with open toes, and the foot is held in place by a 2"-wide stripe towards to front. She wore them barefoot, as she would always do when using open-toe footwear. And she also wore mini-shorts. Shortly after we arrived there, everybody was called in to line-up for a picture. Before she joined me in the back row, I saw her taking-off her slides just in front of the long buffet table. I asked why, she replied she is much taller than the rest of her family, and did not want to appear on this family picture even taller than she is. So, after a few shots, the picture-taking episode was over, and a whole bunch of people rushed towards the buffet where all the food was. I saw my wife joining them.
A few minutes later, though, I heard her calling me. When I got where she stood with lots of people all around her, she told me she could not find one her slides. As you would imagine, it was in great excitement that I looked down, and saw her right foot inside the slide, and her left foot with no footwear. She said when she walked back where she had left her slides, a whole bunch of people were already there serving themselves at the buffet, and she could only find her right slide. Together, we tried to look around for the missing left slide, but there were more than two-dozen people all around, and our view was blocked. So, she stopped searching, got a plate for herself and joined others at the buffet, of course, standing on her remaining right slide only. I saw her occasionally putting her bare left foot on top of her right foot with slide, and then keep walking stepping barefoot on ground with her left foot. This went on like this for a long time, as she got food and drinks, stood up chatting with relatives, and then sat down on an armchair to eat. I kept starring at this glamorous site from a distance, and enjoyed it grossly. Then, she got out to the grass patio outdoors to chat with some more cousins, apparently not minding about her one shoe situation. Surprisingly, other relatives did not look astonished either. As I joined them, they teased me for having married "the Cinderella of the family", and they told me how she had developed a reputation in the family for losing her footwear. It was perhaps an hour later that people started leaving, and as we were set to go, she reminded me of her missing left slide. So, we went back to the spot where her slide had disappeared and started looking around. I was praying so that we wouldn’t find it, and that she had to go all the way home on one slide. So, I pretended to be searching, but did nothing. But, as she searched under the table, she was able to spot her missing slide at a far corner. Someone must have kicked it off there. And naturally, it was up to me to go under the table to retrieve it, and slide it back on her left foot. And that was the end of an unforgettable family reunion, for me at least.This is was the kind of trouble endured by my wife a couple of years ago. She was in a large and crowded discount shoe store. Her footwear on that day was a pair of brand-new, canvas top, medium-heel summer slides. As all other women do, she took one of her slides off and started trying different shoes she picked from the stacks. She kept wondering all around the store for a long time, and finally decided not to buy any. As she was ready to leave, she remembered the slide she had taken off "somewhere" in the store. She quickly toured in between the stacks, but her slide was nowhere to be found. She asked one of the clerks to help, but after a quick tour, he came back empty-handed, too.
Soon, the store manager and another clerk joined the search. Unable to find the slide, the manager offered to give her a new pair for free. But, always walking around one slide on, one slide off, she insisted that her missing slide be found. Luckily for her, missing slide was finally found after half-an-hour of searching: one clerk spotted it on top row of a discount stack. Someone must have confused it for a shoe on sale and placed it there. That was the happy end of a one-shoe adventure, offering solid proof that shoe loss at shoe stores is quite possible.During the 5-minute cruise to ship, she was shoe playing, and while talking to some friends in the bench behind, she dropped her shoe twice on wooden floor with a big loud. Her conversation was interrupted in both, because she had to turn around and recover her shoe. She explained to me her silk nylons made her shoes feel very slippery.
Then, the moment of real excitement came when our boat boarded the ship; two sailors were helping visitors towards the tiny stairs and the platform extending all the way down from the deck to the sea level. Since the waves made our boat pitch up and down violently, jumping from the boat to ladder’s platform was a tricky undertaking. I saw a few ladies before us doing it with great difficulty. One lost her balance and together with it, she almost ended up losing one of her black dress mules. But she managed to make it safely. When it was my wife’s turn, she was held at hands by two sailors, and the moment she jumped towards the platform, our boat was driven down by a big wave, and her right foot remaining on board took a dive down unexpectedly. In lifting her right leg in panic, she could not help her right pump slip off and start flying in the air. Trying to balance herself, she could not even look back to see where her errant shoe was heading to. Luckily for her, the shoe bounced back from the edge of the boat and fell inside. If for a few inches further, it would have safely landed in water and lost forever in dark water. She was stranded now with her right foot suspended in air, and looking puzzled to figure out where her shoe might have landed. I teased her telling her shoe belonged to mermaids now. She was not amused at all! I could see the astonishment and worry in her face: what if she had to keep going on one shoe in front of very select and important crowd of people, who were all dressed up smartly. But, the fun did not go on for long. One of the guys lined up behind me, picked up the pump from inside the boat and waved it towards her. So, I had no alternative but claim it back from the guy. Yet, I had no intention to let this splendid episode to be over quickly: I told her to start climbing the ladder, and I better carried her shoe to the deck and return it there. After all, I explained, it would have been too risky to pass on the shoe and for her to put it on while standing on a pitching platform. She accepted unwillingly, and climbed all the way up, perhaps 30-35 steps, tiptoeing on her right nyloned foot, while I kept watching this splendid sight from below, firmly grabbing her errant shoe. She had to wait for me on the deck for another 4-5 minutes, because I was extremely polite (!) to allow all other visitors to go up before myself, and I was the very last one to reach the deck. She had to introduce herself to captain and shake hands with him half-shod, and then keep waiting for me surrounded by a bunch of naval officers meeting visitors. The rest of the evening was eventless, and on the way back to shore, she was clever enough to hand me over her shoes to avoid losing them once more. Still, for me the joy and pleasure of that evening could have been surpassed by only one thing: her shoe falling overboard, and my wife trying to manage the rest of evening on one pump.At the coffee brake preceding the session during which she was supposed to speak to the audience, she went up to her hotel room to get her documents, so as to better answer possible questions. Coming down to the lobby, she took the elevator. Both hands busy grabbing whole bunch of folders, she hardly managed to press the button. Arriving the lobby floor, as elevator’s doors opened, she was still struggling to balance and straighten the files piled up on her both arms. So, she was a few seconds late in walking out, and the doors were already closing. As she stepped or in fact literally jumped out fast, she could not help one of her pumps slip off and remain behind, inside the elevator. The doors were firmly closed behind her, before she could turn around and reach for her shoe. So, she was stranded in a crowded hotel lobby with her shoe on one foot, and nothing on the other.
She put her files on floor and immediately pressed the button to bring that elevator back, but it was already speeding up, and the doors of another elevator to the side opened instead. She helplessly watched for the elevator with her shoe reach all the way to the top floor and stop there. When she pressed the button, the doors of other elevator kept opening. First, she thought of taking that second elevator to go up and retrieve her shoe. But, two businessmen taking part in the same conference walked in that second elevator, and she was too embarrassed to go up with them wearing one shoe. Instead, posing as if nothing was wrong, she decided to wait for the elevator with her shoe to come down. In the meantime, the elevator with the shoe had already begun its trip down. But, it did stop at several floors before reaching the lobby. And all that time, she had to stand in front of elevators one shoe on, one shoe off, and she saw several passerby starring at her nyloned foot. In the meantime, she kept looking at her watch, worrying about soon to begin conference session in which she was a speaker. When the elevator holding her shoe finally reached the lobby floor and the doors opened, she realized that it was packed with people and she had to wait for them to get out first. She was scared that the doors would close once more, before she can reach for her shoe, and stand there a second time for the elevator to come down. To her relief, she saw this man coming out of the elevator with her pump at hand. She kindly approached him and asked for her shoe. The man did so with a smile in his face. After thanking him and avoiding any further conversation, she quickly put her shoe back on, and that was the end of her one shoe incidence for the day.She made some “serious” shopping at Macy’s and carried large shopping bags full of day’s prize. As she was on her way out and she was using elevators to go down, she stepped with one foot on the escalator, and the slide on her other foot slipped off and fell on non-moving surface preceding the steps. Because of the large bags she carried, she could not turn around fast enough to retrieve it, and she was quickly carried away from her slide. She thought of challenging escalator and climb up, but decided instead to go all the way down, and take other escalator up to reach the spot where she had dropped her slide. Arriving the floor below, however, she was upset to find out that she had to tour halfway around the center of the store to find the escalator going up.
Now, panic started getting her. Thinking of the possibility that her unattended footwear could be removed by someone, she started running on her remaining slide to find other escalator up. She kept running on the escalator as well, thinking that her slide had been out of her sight for long enough for someone to take it and walk away safely. When she arrived to the exact spot, her heart almost stopped: her slide was no more where she had dropped it. She frantically looked around, and saw in great relief that her slide was sitting all by itself at the bottom end of the escalator. Someone must have kicked it onto the escalator and it was carried all the way down. So, she calmly took the same escalator one shod for a second time, and slipped in her errant slide shortly afterwards. Her one shoe experience that could have easily got out of control, was over.She was shopping on that day in local fruit market, wearing pair of jeans, and pair of black slides barefoot. Those were open-toe, low heel, size 8. As she arrived a bottleneck in between the stands where crowd of shoppers had to move shoulder-to-shoulder, she tried to avoid the worst part of crowd by moving to the side. Doing so, she had to cross over a tight line attaching an overhead tent to the ground. She lifted one leg and put it across the line safely. But, as she lifted her other leg that remained behind, and as her foot and slide were in vertical position, someone hit her foot and caused her slide to slip-off and fall.
The errant slide landed across the line, and was possibly no more than a few feet away from where she stood. But, because of stampede of shoppers that blocked the way, she could neither see nor reach for it. She stepped aside for a minute or two with her bare foot suspended, hoping that she could find a momentary gap in crowd to step back and reach for her mateless slide. But, this was unlikely to happen. So, she took the courage to lift up her bare foot towards the people blocking her way and said: “Allow me please, I need my shoe back!” After curious glances at her foot with missing footwear, a few shoppers moved aside to let her pass. But, as she stepped over the line, she realized in despair that her slide was no more where she had dropped it. It must have been dragged or kicked away. She reclined down searching for it, and another woman helped her by keeping the crowd off. She spotted missing slide some 10 feet away. Its color had turned from solid black to whitish gray, because dozens of people must have stepped on it during the time it was unattended. She thanked this woman for having helped her, and put her slide back on. She quickly got out of that crowded market fearing that she might easily lose her footwear again. Despite all the cleaning, the errant slide never matched the color of its clean mate, and had to worn indoors afterwards. In summer 2003, she suffered still another loss at an open-air fruit market. This time, she wore pair of gold-colored slides. Those have a low vamp and considerably heavy heel. They slap loudly with every step. At least to an outside observer, it takes lots of skilful effort to keep them on, but never saw her complaining... Anyway, as she bought some flowers on that day from one of the crowded stands, apparently she stepped (unknowingly) into a pile of leaves and rusted flowers on the ground, and her slide buried deep into it. After she paid, she turned around and stepped out, but her slide came off and it was left in the pile. She realized it after taking two steps on her barefoot. First she couldn’t figure out what happened and started searching for her shoe. But, it wasn’t in sight anywhere nearby (since it was buried in the pile). Then, she walked back towards where she stood paying a moment ago. A few other customers stood there now, and she sneaked her head in between to spot her errant shoe. She figured out where it was, and extending her foot towards the pile, and she finally managed to recover the shoe. The rest was uneventful. No doubt backless shoe with low vamp contributed a lot.
Finally, I could not resist touching the heel of one slipper with the tip of my suitcase, and the right slipper came off easily. She stopped to retrieve her slipper, but I had already crossed over it, and my two large suitcases blocked the entire width of the stairway. I told her there was no place for her to get around, and since I could not put my large suitcases on the stairs either, she better kept going all the way up, and come down later to retrieve her errant slipper.
She agreed and walked all the way up on her left slipper and nyloned right foot. Then she opened the door and led the way inside our home. By the time we were inside, the husband-wife affair took over.
At least half-an-hour went by before she remembered of her errant right slipper. I watched her getting out and going downstairs on one slipper, and listened to this “click, … , click, …, click” sound until she reached where she had dropped her slipper. Despite my prayers to the contrary, the errant slipper was still there. She slipped in it and got back shortly afterwards.
That surely was a welcome to be remembered.
There is another story involving wife of a cousin. She lost her pump while walking through road construction, after parking her car on a rainy day. One of her feet was stuck deep in mud. Struggling to keep her balance, she managed to step on pavement, leaving her shoe buried deep in mud. The spot where her shoe was buried was immediately covered by water and soft mud that rushed in. By the time she put herself in shape and turned around and tried to reach for it, she was clueless about the exact location. Unwilling to get in mud herself and ruin her smart dress, she left her shoe there and drove back home in one shoe.
In another episode, she stepped on the rain drain grid on sidewalk while stepping out of the cab. The heel of her navy blue suede pump got stuck and she had step out of it to close the door and to let the cab go. Since she carried stuff on both arms, janitor of a nearby building was the one to help her retrieve the shoe.
A few months later, I was visiting her office after normal working hours. She had stepped out of her black, mid-heel classic pumps, when I managed to get one and stick it in a confined corner of the room. She did not realize it, until one of her directors came in, and she wanted to step back in her pumps in order to stand up. But she couldn’t find one, and she had to shake hands with him and chat a little while wearing one shoe only. After he left, she asked me embarrassingly to help her find her errant pump. I acted as if I was looking for it, and minutes later, I returned her shoe pretending that I had found it under a nearby file cabinet.
This is why I show my wife (either in magazines or shop windows) the types of footwear I like most. If she agrees, she buys and wears them. We reached the point whereby she rarely buys any new shoes without getting my "consent". In fact, by gradually forcing her to buy certain styles, I made her get used to wearing them. She never wore backless shoes until 4-5 years ago. Especially during warmer months now, she hardly uses anything else than mules or slides. Recently, I even managed to take her out twice for dinner in chilly evenings, while she wore mules with nylons. Until then, she had categorically refused using mules together with nylons, saying mules as warm weather footwear were totally inappropriate with nylons, and they also became extremely slippery to walk around safely. Whether it was on my insistence, or whether she really enjoyed the comfort, I don’t know. But, she told me on that night that she intends to continue wearing her mules throughout winter, and she also considers now buying a few pair of clogs in order to use with thick, warm socks. This, I call, a “step” in the right direction!
Once, while she sat through an exam at a large college auditorium, she suffered temporary loss of one of her shoes. She had one leg crossed over the other and as she dangled violently, her medium-heel black pump flew away by two rows. Since no one was allowed to move or speak during exam, she could not retrieve it, and she had to sat with one pump for another hour or so. When the exam was finally over, one of teasing friends saw the errant pump, and without her realizing, she took it away. She was stranded there for perhaps 10 minutes one-shod, and finally got her pump back when she got out to hallway and saw her friend waiting with her missing shoe.
Another case took place again at university, but this time she had already become a part-time instructor. She rode in University’s shuttle bus with several students and other colleagues, wearing knee-level skirt, light nylons and mustard colored classic suede pumps with 3-inch heels. She took one off during crossed-leg dangling, and as the bus moved, the errant pump was dragged backwards by a few seats. When the bus reached its destination, she realized her missing shoe. Several students offered her to lead the way and get off first, but she calmly turned down those offers, and continued sitting while the bus emptied. Then, she told the driver to pause for a while, and she had to kneel down looking for her misplaced shoe. She recovered it without further trouble, but she was quite worried that one teasing or nasty student could have removed it while getting off.
Once, while she was in the hallway of her office, she walked out of her flat mule when running back to her room to get ringing phone. As she talked on the phone, one of the janitors picked up the mule sitting on the hallway, stood at her door asking if it was hers. She was unable to answer while talking on the phone, and having misunderstood her hand gesture, the janitor walked away with her mule. After hanging up a minute or two later, she had to search for this janitor in the hallway, walking on her mule on one foot, and nothing on the other. Luckily, the janitor was still in the same floor and she was able to retrieve her mule before it was dumped.
Still another incidence, which has almost resulted in total loss of the footwear. She was on her way to classroom to teach at the university during a severe rainstorm. As she struggled her away across the street, she had to jump over a little “creek” formed by rainwater rushing downhill. And off came her black leather pump with 2-inch heel, and landed on water. She had to chase it for 10-15 feet one-shod, and sucking her shoeless nyloned foot in the process. She managed to retrieve it, but the errant shoe was also flooded with water, and she had to spend the rest of the day with a sucked shoe and nyloned foot.
Not surprisingly, given her good performance in various other forms of shoe loss, my wife has had an adventure of her own in this category. Actually, hers was not a genuine shoe loss, but rather a shoe trap that was set by myself. On that day, we were nearing the end of our 7-hour drive back home, when my wife insisted on taking up the wheel, so that I could rest up a little bit and she could improve her high-speed driving skills. As she sat in the driver’s seat, she immediately took her right slide off (as she always does when driving). Listening to my earlier advice that she better keeps the removed footwear away from her feet so that it does not jam the pedals, she handed over her slide to me. That was a pair that she wore barefoot that day.
As we started driving again, I was staring at her one-shod condition and utterly enjoying the scene. This went on for almost two hours, and during that time I managed to drop her slide in the gap behind my seat and in front of the back seat. Our little daughter sitting at the back seat had already claimed this area, and littered there with toys and all kinds of other objects. As our daughter reshuffled those from time to time, I watched in great satisfaction as my wife’s slide got buried and disappear under a pile of objects.
So, when we were close to our destination and the time came for my wife to turn over the wheel to me, she pulled off and stopped the car. That was a busy three-lane toll-way, and we were not supposed to stop for long. Therefore, I hurriedly jumped off and rushed to her side of the car. When I arrived there and opened her door, she was extending her head to the right, obviously searching for her errant right slide. Not surprisingly (for me at least!), it was nowhere to be seen. I told her I had dumped it at the back earlier. She turned over and took a quick look at the pile of our daughter’s belongings there, and gave up her search in disgust. She then stepped out of the car missing her right slide and stepping on the warm asphalt surface with her naked right foot. I saw several drivers taking an amused look at this unusual sight, whereby a tall and attractive young woman in neat outfit walking and standing, missing one of her shoes. Shortly afterwards, she was back in her seat still missing her right slide. She kept her one-shoe condition until we arrived home. When I finally stopped the car, she reclined towards the back seat and after some loud complaints; she finally located her missing slide and put it on again before stepping out.
“I've had a few embarrassing moments thanks to the NYC Subway system. They are documented below. (…)
Lost
It's about 8:30am on a weekday morning, and I'm on my way to work. It's early March, and the Winter has been relatively mild. The temperature is in the mid-forties.
As the subway approached the 23rd Street stop, I started to move into position to exit the car. So did others. The doors opened, and we all made to move to get out. As I was leaving the car, just as I was about the move my left foot from behind me to in front of me, the person behind me managed to step on the back of my foot and pin my shoe to the floor. I fell forward, out of my shoe, and out of the car. I managed to get up and start to go back for my shoe, but alas, I was too late. The doors closed.
I waited right next to the door hoping that it would open quickly enough for me to get my foot in there to keep it from opening, and someone on the inside would hand me my shoe. No such luck. The subway started to move, and my shoe was on a nice little trip to the Brooklyn Bridge.
Dejected, I trudged to work. My little toes got quite cold during the four block walk to my office. I must have looked a little funny walking around without a shoe, but this is NYC, people have seen a lot weirder.
After getting to work, and enduring quite a few comments about my lack of attire ("what, you get dressed in the dark?", "Can't afford two shoes?", etc.) I started to do some work until 10am when the shoe store a few blocks away would open.
After walking over to the shoe store and finding a pair of shoes that I liked, the salesperson asked what happened to my shoe. I explained it, and he told me that I was about the fourth person that year that he had seen to have the same problem.
At least I'm not alone.
This was the board meeting of the company she worked for as an executive. Long, boring briefings were the rule. The U-shaped desk behind which she was sitting together with others was closed in front. So, no one could see her dangling, dipping, slipping off, and doing all kinds of playing with her shoes. She wore orange colored flats also called “ballerina shoes”. Her knee-level skirt was joined by a blouse and jacket, and tan nylons.
At some point, she had her right leg crossed over the left, and she did not bother when her right shoe flew off while dangling. Since the desk was closed on the front side, there was nowhere her shoe could go. “It must have landed somewhere down there”, she thought. Not before long, chairman asked a question about her department’s activities. “Mr. Chairman” she replied, “the answer is already in such and such section of the monthly report sitting next to you.” However, unable to find the exact page she was referring to, the chairman asked her to walk down and show him the exact page. She suddenly remembered that she had dropped her right shoe somewhere under the desk, and made a hastened, but hopeless effort to recover it with her right foot, which was barren now except for nylons.
After a few seconds, “I am waiting”, said the chairman. So, she had to unwillingly stand up and walk towards him, her right shoe missing. Her colleagues’ chairs were far too close to the wall to allow a comfortable walk behind them. So, she had to turn around and get into the center of the U-shape meeting table, so that she could approach the chairman front-side. As she did so, she was terrified by the thought that her barren right foot would be exposed and someone, and worse, the chairman would see it. Yet, as the heel of her remaining left shoe was not high, she managed to walk smoothly, without limping, as if both shoes were where they were supposed to be.
Reaching the chairman and leaning towards his desk, she undertook another smooth leg maneuver, and crossed her right leg in front of the left. Thus, her bare right foot in nylon was partly covered now by her left foot. She did not have the courage to stare back to see if any of her colleagues had realized what was going on. When chairman was shown the page and satisfied, she walked back to her chair, always staying calm, as if everything was normal. When the meeting was over, she dived under the table as if she had dropped something, and retrieved her right shoe that had landed on the far end of the space under the desk. She never figured out if any of her colleagues or the chairman realized her one-shoe condition or not.
Feb 12: We had a great time at the shops, but it finished up a disaster when we got stuck in the mud in the lane on our way home. I’m just out of the shower after cleaning up and I’m feeling really miserable. My suit is ruined, I cut my foot, my legs hurt and one of my nice navy court shoes is lost, stuck somewhere in the mire in the lane.
Feb 14: I have thought about going down to have a look for my lost shoe in daylight, maybe if I put my boots on I'll be able to tiptoe down to the mud patch where it is buried, it is only just down from the house. I would like it back because they were quite nice leather shoes, but it's been stuck in the mud for a couple of days now and even if I could find it I don't know if it would be any good.
Feb 15: It was sunny this afternoon so I thought I’d go and try to find my lost shoe. Although that pair wasn’t anything special, they were quite comfortable and my only navy pair to go with the suit I was wearing (though I don’t know if that is redeemable anyway).
It wasn’t too far from the house we’d got stuck, so I thought maybe if I put my boots on I might be able to go on tiptoe down there and see if I could see it. Then I had a bright idea. It occurred to me that we had some old carpet we took down off the stairs when we moved in here (it was worn and filthy so we were going to take it to the dump but didn’t get there yet). I wondered if I might be able to use it to help me on the mud.
I found a piece of the carpet small enough to carry easily, put on my vinyl knee-high stiletto boots and set out. From the end of the front path I was onto mud, and as the lane slopes there I was a bit scared of slipping as the smooth soles on my boots are a bit slick. Balanced on tiptoe I held on to the fence and branches in the hedge with one hand, clasping my piece of carpet in the other hand and trying to keep my balance as I slipped and slithered down the hill. I must have looked a right sight. Thankfully it was only a few yards to where I remember we got stuck, at the bottom of the slope. I couldn’t see my shoe but I wasn’t surprised because the ruts between the ridges of soft mud were all flooded still. I threw the carpet out onto the middle area. With a couple of tiptoe steps in the churned mire, I was onto the piece of carpet and kicked it out flat.
I still couldn’t see my shoe and didn’t really want to put my hand into the mud or water, so I wondered how I might find it. I tried balancing on one foot on the carpet and feeling around in the mud with the other foot, but I couldn’t really balance properly as I was out of reach of anything to hold on to. I thought I might do better with a piece of stick so I stepped off my island of carpet and paddled back through the slop to the hedge where I broke off a piece of dead branch. Safely back on the carpet, I probed around in the mud and water to see if I could find the shoe. After several minutes probing I found something just under the surface of the mud, about as far as I could reach from my little safe haven. I still didn’t want to stick my hand in, not knowing what I might find, so I stepped down into the slop and tried to feel it with my foot. I got the long pointy toe of my boot under whatever it was and pulled up, and lo and behold – a shoe-shaped mass of mud appeared! I kicked it onto the carpet and stepped up myself. I looked at my poor shoe and really, it was such a sorry sight I didn’t know whether to be pleased or cry! It was completely soaked with the brown mess, full of mud inside, with a not a spot of blue visible. I picked it up with a bit of tissue, turned it over and a load of slop fell out. As I did so, one of my heels went through the carpet unexpectedly, I toppled and fell on my backside in the mud! I put my hands out as a reaction and they landed in the wet as well.
I was pretty annoyed about this, another outfit all muddy although at least this was a washable skirt and not one of my best. At least I’d got my shoe, though I had no idea if it could be cleaned up, but now my bum was all wet and cold. I thought I ought to get back to the house! I retraced my steps, shoe in one hand and holding onto branches with the other but I kept slipping back, and twice I nearly fell again. I eventually got back up the slope by throwing the shoe up into the garden and using both hands to hang on, but it was pretty difficult as my smooth-soled boots just kept sliding away from under me. I used the hose on my boots and to get the worst of the mud off the shoe, then washed the shoe more thoroughly in the sink. To be honest it looked fairly ok, although the insole had come loose and fell out while I was washing it. This could be glued back, I often find insoles coming loose in court shoes and I’m sure other ladies here have had that happen too. Anyway I got all the mud out from inside (using a small bottle brush down into the point of the toe!) and patted it with a towel. The blue leather was dull and black, so sodden with water that pinching it between my fingers, water came out of the leather like a sponge. The other shoe had been wet after I washed it off, but nothing like this.
I wrapped it up in newspaper, with tissue paper stuffed inside too, and let it stand for an hour or so while I went and got showered, washed my hair and re-did my makeup, and have now changed the paper. That’s where we are now, I’m going to leave it overnight and see what happens to it. It might live yet.
"...I was on my way home after work and I decided to take a look at the high street shops on the way to Bond Street tube station. Now I normally wear 4" heels to work due to the fact that I have rather large feet *giggles* I normally go to another train station to go home but as I wanted to do a little extra shopping I found myself waiting on the train platform due for almost 15 mins due to train delays. I was standing near the edge of the platform for the Jubilee line reading a book. Finally the train arrived and as I said before the platform was absolutely packed with people! Unfortunately I was paying attention to my book when I stepped into the carriage. The idiot behind me stepped on my right heel as I was lifting it to step into the train, causing it to momentarily dangle from my nylon clad toe and slip right in between the train and the platform....yep that's right the shoe fell under the platform on the train tracks!! I was absolutely fuming! The guy behind me tried to catch my pump but in vain. I guess he then felt to embarrassed and turned around and didn't get onto the train. Due to the rush of people going into the train I was forced to move and leave my shoe under the train. Thankfully they weren't one of my favorite pumps, (they were half a size too big which is probably why it slipped off my foot so easily!) but even so, i was so angry and embarrassed at everyone looking at my foot that I just took the other pump off. I had to walk barefoot between stations and then home! Not to mention it had rained the day before so my feet were dirty and numb by the time I got home! That's the last time I wear loose fitting shoes! "
It seems she was not the only with such experience, as a guy called "Max from Russia" posted the following reply on June 1, 2003:
"My wife once lost her spiked heeled sandal at the edge of the platform - between it and the train. The shoe caught the platform's edge and was there, till she caught it back. Our idea was to wait for the train to depart, then me to jump down to tracks and recover the shoe, not touching the 800V contact rail for sure. Too good it was not necessary."
Two weeks ago I was coming home from a busy day at shopping in Oxford Street here in London when something incredibly embarrassing happened! I had a few bags with me and I was wearing my white cotton pencil skirt, black sleeveless top and a pair of white stiletto 4"pumps. Both the skirt and heels were brand new, so I decided to change into them at top shop (where I bought them) Anyways, bad things seem to always happen to me in crowded places, because I was walking towards the first escalator in Bond Street Tube Station carrying all of my bags, when my new heel sank into a small finger hole in the floor right before the escalator! It was so humiliating! Since it was so crowded as soon as my foot slipped out of my pump, people pushed me onto the escalator and I had to go ALL the way down with my barefoot on top of my heeled foot! My face went bright red although I tried not to panic! There were a few girls in front of me who noticed my shoe missing and were laughing hysterically. When I finally reached the bottom I had to cross over to the other escalator trying to barely touch the disgustingly dirty floor with my bare foot! Thankfully my heel was still there stuck in the hole. I bent down and pulled on it, forgetting (or not caring) about how expensive it was! I just wanted it on my foot!! Anyways, it wouldn't budge!!! I felt like crying but thankfully one of the staff noticed he and me pried the shoe out. How embarrassing, yet my boyfriend thought it was hilarious and I knew everyone in this forum would enjoy it."
“… She sits down and then says it’s just like your college days again. I say tell me more, did you often walk around shoeless? So Kate says yes, a few times and said when I was at the college, there was one nice sunny hot day, the only classes we had were in the afternoon. We decided to have a picnic in the park, there were six of us who wanted to come. So we packed up a box of goodies and went to the park. We messed about like you do. Then we had a nice lunch with some bottles of wine and beer, and things were getting relaxed. That was when my then boy friend started to rub my angle and toes, which I liked. The next thing he had undone the strap of my right sandal and slipped it off, then he and his mate started to play catch with it. So I got up and tried to get it back and we ended up playing piggy in the middle - this is a game with three people, one either side of the middle one and then throw a ball or something to each other and the middle one has to get it. After about 40 minutes I was getting tired and with only one shoe on, since it had a three inch heel, and with the wine as well.
One of the other girls called to them and he throw my sandal to her, it was a prefect shot and headed straight to her but she stepped aside and my sandal shot pass at great speed and disappeared down a bank at the far end of the park. We all ran over to see were it went, I was the last one to get there, but they were all just standing at the top of the bank and looking down. When I got there and looked to see, the bank went down about 20 feet then there was a path and then a river. We all looked for my sandal but it was nowhere in sight. By now it was getting late and we had to get to our classes, there wasn’t enough time to go back to get another pair of shoes, so I had to go to the classes wearing only one sandal. I had to spend the rest of the day like that.
Then Kate said well at least someone took mine unlike you. I asked what she meant by that and Liz explained that on her wedding day she spent the day wearing only one shoe. It started well, I was getting ready and my sister was helping me. There is a superstition about it being bad luck to look in the mirror when dressed. The tradition was to get completely ready apart from one shoe and only put it on as you go out the door. But with the excitement of the day and walking around with only one shoe for about an hour or so, I completely forgot about it. The car arrived and it was a nice sunny and hot day. It was as we went into the church and when my bare foot touched the cold stone floor that I remembered about my shoe. I turned to my dad to say something but it was to late now, so I walked up the isle in one shoe.
It was not until we got back into the car to go to the reception that I said I had only one shoe and can we go back to the house to get it. So we did and when we got there my dad remembered that he did not have the keys. So I had to go to the reception wearing only one shoe. By now it was getting to feel normal since I had been wearing only one shoe for the last five hours. After the reception we had a party it was nearly at the end my dad turned up with my other shoe so I could at last put it on.
It was then when the mother said I have a funny story. When we were in South Africa, we often had to host posh parties for VIPs, directors of multi national companies etc. It was when we held a party at our home. We had everything ready and the guests started to arrive, when it started to rain, well it does not just rain out there it is more like a tap being turned on. There were only one couple left to arrive and she was always late, by now the path was like a river. When they finally arrived, I sent out two servants to help them in. They got down to the house O.K., but there was a torrent of water running down the side of the house so they had to jump across it to get in. The guy stepped across with no problem but the woman was wearing a tight dress and as she stepped across she did not make it and put her foot into the water, the guy grabbed her to stop her from falling in and they both fell backwards into the house. They picked themselves up and it was then the woman said where is my shoe. It had got pulled off in the water, I sent the servants out to look for it but 20 minutes later they came back in without it.
We dried her off and I took her up stairs to see if we had a pair to fit her but I am a size 3 and this lady was a size 6 so nothing fitted. She decided to continue in just one shoe for the rest of the evening and went home in only one shoe. About a week later the gardener found her missing shoe nearly half a mile away at the bottom of the garden, caught in the fence. I returned the shoe to her; we still laugh about it to this day and are good friends. But after that she is always early now, I wonder why!
I have to tell you all about a very embarrassing experience that I had yesterday... ok, I was running to get onto the train at Padstow (on my way to work) and was dashing into the carriage and one of my shoes goes flying off and hits this woman, so I go "ah shit" and step into retrieve my shoe, next thing my OTHER shoe drops down the gap! ok, THE GAP, the "please mind the gap when boarding and alighting from the train" - that gap... so here my dilemma, doors are closing, to get my shoe that’s in the carriage, or to get my shoe down the gap! I cannot do both! I jump off the carriage, train doors shut, train starts moving... SHIT. so I then had to run down to where the little man hangs out the door and say "STOP THE TRAIN! MY SHOE IS ON THE TRAIN!" I swear, what a nutjob! And he looked at me like I was a nutjob! He didn’t really comprehend it until the train was like 1/2 way off the platform and he stopped the train... then it took about 3 minutes (and three minutes is a long time when people are peering at you out of the windows wondering why you stopped the train and made them late for work goddammit!)... I cannot believe the scenario I am in though so I am laughing my ass off on the platform thinking "omigosh! I am a knob!"... anyway, doors opened, women who was hit with my shoe throws me shoe back at me and I sheepishly wave thanks to the door guy, train doors shut and the train moves on... I then am left having to jump onto the tracks (which is very illegal!) and retrieve my other shoe! Shoeless! So I jumped onto these massive sharp rock things and KILLED my feet, they're actually bruised! Then had to climb back onto the platform and killed my hands on the gravel pulling myself back up.... seriously! So now people, the point of this is, IF CITYRAIL EVER RUNS LATE, WE KNOW WHY! It’s because people lose their shoes, it’s quite simple, I can’t be the only moron out there!!! But another point to note is that, it would have been a whole lot more simple if I had just got on the train to get shoe that was on the train, and then got off at the next station and gone back to Padstow to get my shoe that was on the tracks... but you only think of these things after...
As part of her job, she has to pay frequent visits to public offices. In one such visit to a high-ranking official’s office, she happened to wear pair of mules (mid-heel, navy blue & crème, with pointed toe) with pants and nylons. When her visit was over, it was time to stand up and leave, and the person waiting for the next appointment was already moving in the room. So, in her hurry to leave as quickly as possible, she stood up fast by making a half-turn around herself, but in the process left one of mules behind under the coffee table!
Meanwhile, the guy for the next appointment already shakes hands with the official in the immediate vicinity of her errant mule. She stood there for a second or two, and thinking how in the hell she would get her shoe back without the guys realizing what had happened. As her pose in front of the guys extended beyond a few seconds, the official said "anything else, madam?" She took this as an opportunity to take a step towards the coffee table, as if she was going to thank once more and say there was nothing else. In doing so, she gracefully extended her leg to recover her missing shoe with success. She says the guys must have definitely figured out that the she had left behind her shoe. She also tells me now she remembered why she hesitated to wear mules with nylons few years ago, when backless shoes were not at the forefront of fashion world…
It was a cool October day in Florida and my wife and I decided to go around to a few of the local city parks that we have in our area and take some nature. Our first stop came to be at Kraft Gardens, a nice size, but rather small park. It's a nice spot to sit and relax and watch the boats, water skiers, occasional alligator or two as well as the tourist boats. There is also a nice large wooden deck with a short wooden pier, about 12, possibly not more than 16' in length that leads out to this deck over the lake and deep murky water.
Now my wife opted on this cool day to wear the following outfit, black crushed velvet skirt, white blouse, nylon stockings and her black closed toe slides or mules as I think some may call them.
Back to the wooden deck over the lake, we had walked out onto the deck, which is just braced by wooden blanks that are mounted vertically (see photo for a better description) that have wide openings between them. So as my wife and I were standing there watching the boaters and water skiers, someone with a large dog (my wife does not like large dogs and tends to panic when one shows up) comes up on the deck and my wife had her right foot in her shoe resting between the opening of these planks.
Well the dog let out a LOUD WOOF, which in turn startled and scared my wife. She got so startled that her first impulse was to jump up onto the bench beside us, and when she did, KER_SPLASH, she knocked her right shoe off and down into the water it went. The peril of a backless shoe worn with nylons.
There was no way to reach it by hand, and I tried to locate a tree branch to save it, but before I could, we just watched the shoe fill up with water and sink into the murky, weed filled waters with no way to recover it.
I tried several times to get a photo of my wife in the one shoe, but she just knew I'd attempt it. She said if you take any pictures of you're going to need a doctor. So I just have the photo of her lone shoe that was left after our trip to first park. I tried to get her to let me take some shots and even to get her to go to the other parks just wearing her lone shoe, but sadly it was no deal this day.
My wife was the first one to get to the office that summer morning. As she started checking her e-mails, she heard that strange “thumb-thumb” sound in the hallway. My wife is a senior executive in the office; so she was curious and got up to check what was going on. To her surprise, what she found out was one of the female employees in her late-20s (a chemist with Ph.D.), struggling to get to her room by hopping on her shod foot, and lifting up the other foot that was devoid of any footwear. From my wife’s description, she is quite tall, thin, brunette, but not terribly attractive.
When asked what happened, the young employee explained that she had bought a new pair of slides over the weekend, and she wore them for the first time that morning. She used public transport (meaning city bus) to get to work. Somewhere during her journey, and without any warning, the upper part of one of her slides suddenly detached completely from the sole. The slide was a total loss -- she tried to fix it but no way. The remainder of the journey, she had to endure one-shod.
Since my wife is quite familiar with such one-shoe predicament (!), she lent her a pair of spare shoes that she kept at the office... Then, during the lunch brake, my wife gave her an extra hour off, so that she can go to the shoe store where she had bought her pair over the weekend, and got it replaced. By mid-afternoon, she was back in office wearing a new pair of slides – this time intact!
From my wife’s description, I’ve figured out that the broken slide must have been similar to this. My wife didn’t know how much of her journey she had to endure one-shod – but, the walk from bus stop to office is two blocks or so, and most probably this is when her shoe gave up.
“John and I took the kids to this really cool Cavern near our house called the "Mercer Caverns." The rock formations are completely amazing unlike anything I have ever seen. The crystals were millions of years old and took millions of year to reach the sizes they are. The tour guide was extremely strict and would not let us touch anything in order to preserve the natural beauty that took millions of year to grow. OK now here is where things get interesting…
While we were climbing back up the stairs my shoe fell off my foot!!! I was wearing open-toe/backless shoes) and it just fell off. It must have dropped a hundred feet and on the way down you could hear the shoe banging into the crystal formations. It sounded like someone was breaking glass. OMG I was soooo embarrassed as I was responsible for damaging what mother nature took millions of year to create. All because my shoe fell off my foot.
So basically I was walking around in socks all day. John and I had to stop on the way home so I could buy a pair of shoes to wear to dinner.”
The club itself was kind of “eh.” There was a lot of slow music. But there were some good songs (Republica’s Ready to Go! WOOT!) and we danced on the stage for a while. But then, a little bit before 1-ish, we decided to leave. Easier said than done. You see, the club did not have a real coat check. It was more like a closet. And by this point, the entire closet was full…and there was a 3 foot tall, closet-wide mound of coats amassed at the bottom. Thus, we begin digging for our coats (we had put them over the coat rack, but they fell off). Anne finds hers quickly and Tanya finds her pretty soon afterwards. Julie and I are not having as good of luck. Julie eventually dives into the piles and begins swimming through coats for her coat/bag. During this epic struggle, she loses a shoe. Yes, you read that right.
By now, about 20 minutes have passed, about a dozen patrons are frantically searching for their coats, and there is a 25 person line behind them of people who also want their coats. The bouncer keeps ordering people who have their coats to clear the area so other people can look for theirs. Eventually, he gives up and just keeps saying “This is a clusterfuck! A CLUSTERFUCK!
Julie eventually finds her coat and bag and I find mine. Julie’s shoe however is nowhere to be found. She surrenders the shoe as a victim of the night (“This night was so crazy, I lost my shoe!”) and we left. Into the 19 degree weather. I’m at slightly dressed (jeans, button down shirt and my bomber jacket and glovers), but the girls are all wearing REALLY short skirts and fishnets. Yeah…not fun. And Julie is hopping on one foot and holding onto me for support.
Now, comes part II of the adventure. Being true Jerseyites (okay, well Anne’s from Pennsylvania…but no one’s perfect), we decided that at 1:15, after a night of chaos, the logical choice is to go to a diner. Except, we live in Boston (or suburbs of Boston). Therefore, 24 hour diners do not exist.
But IHOPs open till 2 in Harvard Square do. We find the IHOP and exit the car. We didn’t know at the time how late it was open till…so we’re panickedly rushing in the 19 degree cold (Julie has given up the hopping and just decided that the stockings will die), hoping that IHOP doesn’t close…”
During her second appearance on the show, she related an incident that occurred in the course of one of her assaults on a department store. She was trying to keep an elevator door open, so she kicked her leg in to stop it from closing, but it took off anyway — with her shoe.
She said she pushed the button to call the elevator back; but when it returned, the shoe was gone. Somebody took my shoe! she exclaimed. Somebody took your shoe? Regis reiterated. Yeah, somebody took my shoe. Animals! Regis snarled. Ronda limped to Lost and Found — to no avail.
Undaunted, she simply bought another pair of shoes.
First one, by a girl by the name “Jen” reported the following in yahoo answers:
So embarrassing! I lost my shoe!!!!?
I was getting on the underground today when someone must have knocked my foot because it went flying between the gap and landed on the track! I was so embarrassed, I didn’t know what to do! Eventually I found a member of staff who used his stick to get it back. The most embarrasing thing ever. Please tell me I’m not alone in this??? Has it happened to anyone else???
“Crazylady” replied with an account of her own: saw it happen to a woman getting on an overground train. She must have been in a hurry cos she carried on without it!
Then, the second account to have appeared in Sara’s blog site “la parisienne:
“… I wore my black pumps that I got for the gala a few weeks ago. Being as I usually don't wear heels, I was a little uncomfortable walking long distances but it was ok. We met a few other people with whom we were going out and went to a bar that has 2.50 euro "shooters" (ha) and had a few.
Then, since the metro closes at 12:30 am, we had to run and take the RER (faster metro) to make it to our next destination (an Irish bar that is the favorite of another student, Emily, who has studied before in Paris). This is when I lost my shoe.
Unlike the regular metro, the RER train has a bit of a void between the platform and the train step. Since we were all rushing to hop on, I tripped a little and my right shoe fell off and down into the abyss.
At first I didn't believe that it really happened, and then I wondered what I was going to do about it since we were planning on doing more walking between the metro and the bar. After laughing hysterically about it with everyone, we decided that my best bet was to put something over my stocking-ed foot, and Anna saved the day and gave me one of her pink gloves to wear on it, and I did. One of the other girls took a picture of it, but you will have to wait and see to get the full effect. Not only did I wear the glove on my foot, but I proceeded to race through the metro with everyone else, it was quite a feat. I kind of felt like the guy in that movie Rudy or something where the main character faces a challenge and then ultimately prevails. Everyone else I was with was very helpful and the guys even offered to carry me but I refused as I don't think they would have been able to.
I think that shoe had a weird aura or something because it's the same one that I ruined the tip of after tripping on the sidewalk in Baltimore after the gala. I think I'll save the other shoe for a memory of the ridiculous event.”
And comes the third one, told by plum1976:
“… The other time was as I was getting onto a train and again, a woman trod on the my heel and the shoe came off and landed on the door step. She reached down to pick it up, and promptly knocked it onto the tracks. Genius. So I had to miss my train and hop back up the platform and up the stairs to get someone to come and fish it off the tracks for me. Amazingly, considering it had just been run over by a train, it was in one piece.”
And finally, the fourth and the last: “The Shoe That Got Away”. A blog account by a New Yorker:
“… Delirious in my state of attraction, feeling something akin to drunkenness, I begin to hear bells ringing in my head and am all-too-suddenly whisked back to reality. Those aren’t warning bells or wedding bells or the thousand bells that sound at love’s inception. They are the bells that signal the closing subway doors after a scheduled stop. My stop.
“Shit!” I leap from my seat and squeeze through the remaining four-inch gap that is to be my exit.
More Three Stooges than Indiana Jones, I slip just shy of a graceful getaway and in order not to literally fall on my face (I’ve already accomplished this metaphorically), turn toward the train from the outside and bob up and down on the one leg that isn’t being held hostage by the downtown E train. My right foot is now trapped between two large wedges of thoughtfully designed MTA steel and rubber retractable doors. And they are not retracting!
After a painfully long three seconds, in which the conductor is screaming at me to release the door, I realize I have no choice but to forfeit my shoe — my new, perfect, from my favorite pair of shoes shoe — to the God of ‘I tried to beat the train doors.’ I scrunch my toes back and forth while my gravity-defying sandal maintains a two-inch wedge for me to slide out of. And just when I am nearing freedom, the doors bounce back and snap shut as efficiently as the jaw of an alligator, knocking me off balance so I fall very unmetaphorically on my ass and taking my shoe, my guy, and my dignity along with them.
I pick myself up, collect the compact, dayrunner, and myriad personal effects that fell from my bag and scattered across the platform, and limp up the Seventh Avenue escalator with one shoe, a foreign piece of gum, of which I am unaware, stuck to my back jean pocket, and what is now a terribly bad hair day. I feel like an Army ad gone astray.”
“… Whilst walking up the left side of the magic moving stairs at Oxford Circus underground, my shoe fell off. Everyone moved out of the way to allow it the freedom to bounce and sping all the way to the bottom. I then had to ride the rest of the way to the top and back down the other side to retrieve said shoe with about 300 people watching… thanks.”
A big-time shoe loss fan, “NM” came up with this splendid first hand observation from NYC underground:
“… You would think that with the recent trend in women wearing flip flops to and from work, one of these flip flops would either break or slip off. None to be seen............until this week.
So this week, I am going down into the subway. Near the token booth, I see a woman, 30-35 or so, leaning against the wall wearing just one kitten heeled flip-flop with a pretty bow on top on her right foot. Her left foot was bare except for a toe ring. Since this has been a long "dry spell", I was compelled to hang around to try and find out what her situation was.
She was talking to a friend while either waving her one bare foot in the air, resting it on her shod foot or just resting her toes on the bare concrete floor. The train eventually came and her friend said goodbye and left. I stayed and watched from a distance.
A little later, another friend showed up followed by an older woman who gave her an extra pair of flats to wear. They were a little large for her and she seemed reluctant to put them on at first but then did. Holding her one flip-flop in her hand, she and the woman who "rescued" her were talking and started walking over toward my direction where I was standing. I was then hearing most of the conversation and then got the nerve to ask what happened.
That's when she told me that as she was boarding the train in the other direction, her shoe came off and fell down onto the track. The door closed before she was able to get off so she had to get off at the next stop, turn around and come back. She told me that the police and transit workers were looking for her shoe but couldn't find it. I asked her if she remembered where it fell. "Yes I do. But I can't go over to the other side in this station without going onto the street and I'm not going to do that without a shoe on.…
Just then a few policemen showed up. She asked them if they found her shoe to which they replied that they didn't yet. Since by then the third train pulled into the station while I was there, I wished her good luck and made my way onto the train. …”
“This takes place at MK, or at the monorail station at MK. We got on at Epcot, but when we entered the train a woman stepped on my mums flip flop so it fell off and down on the rails. We couldn't get off the train cause there were so many people getting on, so we had to ride to MK and then get off. We told a CM at MK what happened and he called Epcot station to get them to get and bring it to MK. So we were standing there waiting and waiting while one train after another arrived but no shoe. My mum had only one shoe on so people were looking at her. All the CM knew about it so they all asked my mum if she was the woman that lost her shoe. Finally the shoe arrived and together with it 5 or 6 CM that all wanted to see who the shoe belonged to. My mum became quite famous, better known as The Woman With The Lost Shoe.”
The one below was posted in a 911 dispatcher’s blogsite. Apparently, a woman lost her shoe on the freeway and wanted it back so badly!
“So I am chatting with Officer B and the phone rings
Me: Hello Wonderful PD, how can I help you?
Caller: I need help, I lost my shoe.
Me: I'm sorry? You lost your.....
Caller: My shoe, on the freeway, in your city.
Me: OK....well all calls for service on the freeway are handled by the Highway Patrol, so let me get you their number. It's ----------------.
Caller: Great, I will call them, I also need the number for those guys who work on the freeway in those orange vests. You see, my shoe was lost on the freeway and it was very expensive, but now I only have one shoe, and I want the other one back.
Me: Well the guys in the orange vests are probably CalTrans … Or prisoners… Let’s just go with CalTrans. Their number is _____ .
Caller: Oh good, I really want my shoe back, it is very expensive and it is somewhere on the freeway. I lost it there a week ago.
Me: Ok, well if anyone can help you it will be one of the numbers I gave you.
Caller: Thank you so much. Bye!
From “Times of India: “While model Manasvi was walking the ramp during Mandira Wirkas show, she slipped and her shoe landed right near the front row on the left side of the ramp. And that was before she had walked even half the way to take the bow as the show ended. But Manasvi decided to carry on. She didn’t falter and exuded confidence with a shoe on just one foot and with her other foot bare.” This photo captures young and attractive Manasvi lining up confidently alongside other models, with her left heel still missing.
Recife: Brazil.
Brian Reyes Fall 2009 collection during New York Fashion Week, Feb 19, 2009.
Relief London September 2008 : Sugababes’ singer Heidi Range slips out of her shoe and leaves it behind.
Fashion model Doutzen Kroes July 2006 account: “During a show for Victoris’s Secret, my shoe fell off. I didn’t know what to do. Keep on walking or go back? I reacted just to turn around and pick up the shoe.
Singapore - New Face 2007 contest: One of the contestants right heel slipped off during group walks. She managed to pick it up, but continued one-shod, causing her to limp awkwardly.
A real life Cinderella story has unfolded in Dublin after a single black Chanel shoe was found in a city centre taxi. The expensive shoe was found on December 5, and the two girls who found it have been at pains ever since to find the owner. Aisling O'Toole and Ciara McDonnell were on their way to work in a taxi last Friday when they spotted the classic shoe lying in the back seat.
Classic
"We just found it in the back of the taxi, and we thought we'd track the owner down."
Aisling says she feared the owner would be devastated at losing such a classic and expensive shoe, right before the Christmas season of parties and festivities began.
"We just thought, we have to find the owner. They're black latent leather pumps, and only a size three."
The tiny size gives one small clue to its finders that the woman is of small stature. Aisling jokes that she couldn't have taken the shoe, even if she'd wanted to.
"Apart from the fact that there's only one shoe, you couldn't wear them anyway because they're too small.”
"I think the taxi driver didn't take us seriously at first, but we just said 'look this is a Chanel shoe, it's serious business'.
"He said we'd be better than him to track her down, so by the time we got to Dundrum we decided to take it with us.
"We think she loved them," explains Aisling, "because they were shiny and well taken care of. We knew they weren't new because they'd been re-soled."
Still baffled as to how the girl lost her Chanel, Aisling says it was lost during day light hours.
"The taxi man hadn't been on the night shift so we knew it hadn't been some girl who was drunk in the taxi."
A lady rang the Carriage Office to look for her precious shoe while it was still in Aisling's possession, it is understood.
However, in an unfortunate turn of events, the lady has not called since and the shoe now lies in wait of its owner in the Today FM offices at Digges Lane, Dublin 2.
Aisling, a self-professed shoe-lover added that every girl has a passion for shoes and would understand the need to get the shoe back to the foot that fits. "She clearly loves them. If I lost a Chanel shoe I'd want it back too."
“… I'm going to retell this story for those readers that haven't heard it, and to catch you up on the state of The Lost Right BCBG Shoe:
As many of you recall, a few months ago I went to a HUGE Real Estate event in Houston. This was the Who's Who of Real Estate professionals for this area. It was held at The Grove, and went from about 6 pm-11 pm. After making my rounds, and making some new broker acquaintances, I "nestled" into a spot with a friend and began to eat, drink and be merry. Well it just so happened that it was POURING rain that night. One of the things I adore about Houston is its thunderstorms, the rolling thunder, the torrential rain, running like a mad woman through parking lots to keep my hair from looking like a Tyra Banks weave. Well this evening I valeted my car because the rain was out of control. … I arrive at the valet stand, and after having been what I like to call "over served" (the bar tender was doing this intentionally, he was not very sneaky), I hand the valet my ticket and wait in line with the 300+ people that have also valeted their vehicles. After this, everything gets a little fuzzy.
I woke up at home (my house wasn't very far from the restaurant), with a pounding headache, my clothes strewn about my room, and only one shoe. I search my car, my room, my house, EVERYWHERE. That black BCBG shoe is gone. Vanished. I lost my shoe at The Grove. What I have decided happened, was that while waiting for my car at the valet stand I took off my right shoe (I don't know how to drive with my right shoe on, it's a physical impossibility) and somehow dropped it. Either way, I was minus one. . .SHOE.
So after arriving at work, I call The Grove. This is verbatim how this embarrassing conversation went:
Ring, ring.
Lady (Ivonne is her name): Good morning, The Grove.
Avery: Hi, I was there last night for the NAIOP event.
L: Oh yes how can I help you?
A: Well actually this is kind of a strange question, but did you happened to find a right shoe?! To be exact it was a right, black, leather BCBG shoe. A slingback.
L: (laughing) Ma'am I'm sorry I don't understand?!
A: My shoe, I think I left it there. It's black…
L: I don't understand. . .just one shoe?(starts laughing hysterically)
A: Could you please ask the valet if they found a shoe, I think I lost it near there.
L: Please hold while I go check. (HOLD MUSIC)
L: Good morning, The Grove.
A: Yes, I was holding for the lost shoe.
L: (more hysterical laughter) ma'am we didn't find your shoe. Can I get your name and phone number and we'll contact you if we find it.
A: Yes (I give her my info and a full description of the lost shoe, now I'm trying not to laugh)
L: Thank you for calling The Grove.
Fast forward to December 19th (tomorrow), our office Christmas Party. At The Grove. Guess who is my event coordinator?! Ivonne. I'm going to be utterly mortified if she remembers that I'm the woman who lost her shoe. So let's all say a little prayer she doesn't remember that conversation that has become emblazoned in my mind. Or maybe we should pray they found my shoe. Heaven forbid a homeless one legged woman we stylish in my fabulous shoe.
Crysten’s shoe went overboard, literally: “I was at a wedding on Saturday. This wedding had a reception on a riverboat going down the St. Croix. So I'm standing outside on the front of the boat, talking to my mom and we decided that it was time to take a picture. My foot was under where one ties the boat up - the little mini railing. I lifted my foot up, and my shoe fell off of the top of my foot, so I put my foot down to slide it back into the shoe. Well, my shoe was not there. We looked all over for it, and it simply was not there. Apparently my shoe went off the boat. No one saw it, no one heard it, but apparently it went overboard! So I got to walk around the rest of the night barefoot, my left shoe is now on a shelf as a trophy, and I have an awesome story. Good thing they were only 10 dollar Target shoes, right?”
From the blog site of an Istanbul woman (my sincere thanks to “Gordion” for contributing and translating this): “When you take a ferry boat in Istanbul, what’s the most tragicomic thing that could possibly happen? A bird dropping on your head? Or hitting your head? Keep guessing, but you would probably not find the answer. Let me tell you: while you cross the gangplank to board the ferry, the redneck behind you steps on the back of your left shoe with all his redneck powers, makes your shoe slip off, and as if that wasn’t enough he kicks it in such manner that your shoe flies off into the sea. Outcome: your bare left foot in stark contrast with the right still in a nice shiny golden ballerina shoe! Then, “oh! I’m very sorry” part and the guy disappear. Yes, in today’s Kadikoy-Besiktas ferry, if you happened to come across with a woman in long skirt with one barefoot, that was definitely me, nice to meet you! So, how do you fix such situation? Let me tell it right away. You dial the hero of the day, the princess of all princesses, your dear friend Ozge and tell her in a crying tone, “you won’t believe it, but one of my shoes fell into the sea”. As our hero hesitates between laughing and getting serious, you ask her to buy a pair of brown ballerinas. Not only she turns out to be an outstanding person, but she also manages buying a very comfy pair of brown ballerinas for just 10 liras and brings it all the way to the ferry station. You get off the ferry and step on the quay denying all the strange looks and funny faces. The couple standing next to you has their eyes grow. Probably, they are thinking of the various possibilities… Rape victim? Robbed? Then the hero of the day comes in flying her skirt (though not her cloak), and hands over your life savior ballerinas. Those of you into the science of statistics, would you please tell me the probability of such thing happening to anybody?”
From the blog “When in Tokyo”, an account from Nov 2008: “Usually when I ride the trains I'm the one getting pissed off or trodden on, but not today. Next time you ride the train or subway, look down at that space between the platform and the train. Sometimes it's small but other times it's pretty big, and you find yourself wondering if your leg or maybe a small child could accidentally slip down there. Not to worry, this story doesn't involve someone having their leg sawed off while the train is happily departing for the next station, but it does involve that gaping crack between train and platform. When you talk about trains in Tokyo, there's no way to avoid also talking about crowds and lineups. Everybody wants to be the first one through the doors which naturally involves lots of pushing and everyone getting much closer to you than you'd like. I usually try to stay above this childish behaviour but I suppose on this day I was in more of a hurry than usual, and I accidentally stepped on the back of the shoe of the girl in front of me. It promptly fell off her foot and, you guessed it, right into that space between platform and train. In hindsight it's a wonder this kind of thing doesn't happen more often, but that's hindsight. At the time I was mortified that I'd been the cause of something so distressful. I mean, think of it. You suddenly find that you only have one shoe, and the other one is now under the train's wheels and about to get ground up into paste. On top of it all, you're now obliged to stick around and try to find some way to salvage your shoe which means you're going to miss your train, almost as bad as losing a shoe in the first place. Predictably, the girl uttered a horrified 'uso....' (oh my god, no way!) as she watched her shoe disappear into the darkness. Her boyfriend (who was bigger than me), instead of punching me in the face after my startled 'gomen nasai' (sorry!), sadly looked down to where the shoe was now hidden, and turned to her with a consoling expression, not saying anything, while pulling her out of the line up to wait and see if the shoe would survive. It was a depressing sight to say the least. What to do? Should I wait around with them like an unwanted person at a funeral? The line was moving inexorably into the train, leaving the shoeless girl and her boyfriend on the sidelines and I felt myself moving with it. I'll never know if she managed to get her shoe back now, or if she had to hop all the way home, but either way, I'm truly sorry”.
This one is from Manola’s Shoe Blog: “Account by “Mq, cb” in Manolo’s Shoe Blog: “This is just awful. I hate pointy toes. I have wide feet and the arrival of round-toed shoes was a boon. Finally I didn’t have to make a choice between shoes that pinched my toes but fitted the rest of my foot and buying them in a non-pinchy bigger size which of course might mean, depending on the cut, that they were possibly a touch too long for my foot. Of course if you got it wrong and they *were* too long in the foot, disaster ensued. Cinderella in a fairy-tale, oh how sweet. In practice leaving your shoe behind as you’re bustling along the pavement is a recipe for acute embarrassment. The worst was the day when my shoe fell off my foot onto the train track just as I was getting on to the commuter train. They had to stop the entire train and send the guard off to get the special “pick that silly woman’s shoe off the track” stick so that he could retrieve my shoe and return it to me before several hundred people could go to work. I hid my face in my newspaper for the rest of the journey.”
Posted by Chelsi on Dec 19, 2007, at her blog site. “Thursday: I was running to the S-bahn at Helligenstadt and my shoe fell off as soon as I got into the train. It fell underneath the train, therefore I could not reach it. The doors shut tight, keeping me from getting off and retrieving it. I had to walk home with one shoe in the cold and tons of people looking at me oddly. 5 hours later, when I was back at the S-bahn station, my silver slip-on shoe was still there, so I laid down on the side walk and grabbed it. A little embarrassing I must say. But, somehow it was still intact and as good as new.
And finally, Katie H’s experience from April 22, 2008: “So here I am alighting the train at Jackson. Left foot, on. Right foot....on, but my shoe has gotten stuck one step behind me on the platform. Before I can wiggle my foot back and into the shoe, the person behind me kicks it, and it FALLS in the crevasse between the train and the platform, down onto the tracks. I'm stunned. I kind of hobble/am pushed onto the train and into a seat by the rush hour crowds. Shoe Kicker Man is badgering me with questions like "was that my fault?" and "oh, were they expensive?" and I'm just stunned. I'm thinking: what the....oh my god...I have no shoe on...I'm on the L and I have no shoe on....call Dan, have him meet you at the station with a pair...oh god, I hope there's nothing nasty on this train...oh FUCK, that was my favorite pair! Suddenly, it seems to dawn on both Shoe Kicker Man and me that we should go back and get it. We hop (me literally) off at Lake and backtrack. The guy actually jumps down onto the track for me and rescues my shoe, which is amazingly unharmed and free of gross L track slime. YAY! So, thank you, my shoe savoir. Yes, it may actually have been your fault that my shoe was in danger in the first place, but I cannot believe you were kind enough to come back with me and rescue it from peril. You are a true friend of women, and their trendy pumps!”