Droppedit's Shoe Stories

This page contains several stories about loss of footwear by women, as well as remarks and observations about the circumstances that make such loss more likely. At times, such loss might be temporary, and at others, permanent. But, the common denominator for all stories in this page is that they are 100% true. Most were heard first hand from the women having experienced a shoe loss. A few others were witnessed by the author himself. One particular subject to find frequent mention is the author’s wife; a shoe admirer and persistent shoe player, who frequently lends herself into shoe trouble.

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!”.

An Airline Flight Attendant’s Shoeplay Folly

Here is a story which is hundred percent genuine and real. I heard it first hand from the young, thin and tall, blonde and very attractive woman who experienced it. She works for a leading airline in Europe and was telling the story to friends, when I inadvertently listened while sitting in business lounge of the same airline.

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.

Her Pump Took a Ride in a Taxi

This one happened 4-5 years ago, when my wife, who is a fairly young and attractive businesswoman, took a cab to go to her downtown appointment. That was a cold day, and even some snowflakes were flying around. She is a thin and tall brunette, and her long legs were exposed on that day thanks to her above-knees skirt. Her smart business jacket and heavy overcoat were complemented by hi-quality nude pantyhose, and a pair of black leather pumps. Her 2.5-inch heels were rectangular and slightly thicker at top than classical models. That was a stylish pair that was up to the fashion of the day. They were worn for no more than a few months, and did not show any sign of being worn-off. Like most of her office shoes, those pumps were half-a-size too big to give her comfort during long meetings. She had even walked out of that pair a couple of times before.

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.

One Shoe Hotel Mystery

A mysterious situation of shoe losing: wife’s trendy high-heel pump vanished in a hotel room in Switzerland.

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.

Family Shoe Fun

I got back from my mother-in-law’s home, with a wonderful one-shoe experience. This was a fairly large family get-together my wife’s family, she lost her footwear, again!

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.

Shoe Store Mix-Up

There are a lot of women taking off a shoe at shoes stores, leaving it in one place and going around discount racks testing samples. Thus, it would be easy for someone to mistake the shoe for one on display counter or discount rack and move it to one of those places. The consequence would be loss of a shoe.

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.

The Pump that Almost Fed a Mermaid

We were invited to this visiting warship for a black tie dinner. The ship was anchored off the shore, so people were ferried there in small boats, and they literally climbed on ship using a catwalk type ladder. My wife wore a smart dark business suit with trousers, black silk nylons, and three-inch black leather pumps. This was perhaps the second or third time she used them. The transfer from shore to small boat was helped by a couple of sailors and she encountered no problem.

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.

Elevator Mishap at a Conference

She wore on that day pair of black leather pumps: 3" heels that were slightly rectangular but not chunky, and the front of toes was smoothly squared. Her knee-level business outfit was complete with suntan pantyhose. She was attending a conference as a speaker at a five-star hotel in another city.

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.

Slide on Escalator

Another one shoe story. It all happened last summer, when my wife walked out of her slide while stepping on escalator at Macy’s, in midtown NY. She wore that day size-8 Nicole slides with 2-inch chunky heel and cherry colored leather top. She wore them barefoot, with trousers.

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.

Need My Shoe Back

Another shopping experience:

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.

Dropped a Slipper

Coming back from a long business trip, my wife had come all the way down to the lobby of the apartment building to meet me, and to help me upstairs. She wore her medium-heel, black leather house slippers, with closed toes. With soles strong enough to go outdoors, those were in fact mules converted for indoor use. As she led the way and started walking upstairs, I was literally taken over by the “slap-slap” sound, and the sight of the slippers opening wide from her black nyloned feet.

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.

Left in Bus, Stuck in Mud

This is a true story I heard from a girl sitting next table in a restaurant. Apparently, her friend left a shoe inside a public bus, while getting off. The bus closed doors and started moving. But, I have no idea if she was able retrieve it, or what type of shoe that was.

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.

Grids or Traps?

Getting a shoe stuck in a grid on sidewalk appears to be quite a frequent happening by females. As recent as a few evenings ago, as we were coming back home from a reception, my wife had one of her purple silk dress slides stuck in a drain grid just in front of our house, and she walked out of it. It was up to me, again, to kneel and struggle for a time to free the slide without harming the trendy heel, while she stood with her barefoot lifted. This purple slide is my favorite out of her huge collection of backless shoes, and I enjoyed the time starring at her one shoe situation.

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.

Flip-Flops

Flip-flops are curious footwear, combining a flat sole with a simple upper part, and nothing more than a tiny strip keeping the two parts together. Not only are they easy to come off in motion, but also they give the impression of being extremely fragile. And so they are, as several women find out inconveniently. My wife is no exception. Several years ago, we were in Thailand vacationing, and took a daylong boat cruise to a coral reef in South China Sea. Tricked by their unbelievably cheap price, she had bought the day before a pair of plastic flips flops. Unknowing to her was the real price to be paid the next day. She chose to wear her new (and cheap!) footwear for the journey on the sea. The boat left on a small island for the entire day for us to enjoy the sea and the sand. She encountered no problems with her flip-flops until the very end of our Robinson life. Then, our small tour boat came and anchored off the shore to pick us up. Transportation from shore to boat was through a motorized raft, and her adventure started while climbing a tiny stair to the deck. As she executed this climb, the upper part of her right flip-flop detached from the sole. I was lucky enough to be in the right spot with a camera, and immortalized the scene. Her broken flip-flop was not in a condition to be repaired, and she was stranded there one-shod, when we still had an hour-long boat cruise, disembark at the port, and endure a long bus trip back to our hotel. First, she tried to overplay the severity of her situation and said nothing to a bunch of friends traveling with us. As we got closer to the shore, she decided to ask for help. And that turned out to be her lucky day: one of the girls in the group had an extra pair of slides, and she gladly lent them. Her half-shod experience did not last long, but enough to teach her a lesson about the downside of cheap flip-flops. She tossed her ruined flip-flops to a confined corner of the boat and never bothered getting them when leaving.

Lost at Home

One’s own house would appear to be an unlikely location to loose footwear. Still, it happens. Once, my wife lost one of her slippers while re-arranging book stacks at home. Presumably, it was buried under huge pile of books lying on the ground. She spent an hour or so wondering around one slipper on, one slipper off. Remarkably, she never bothered putting on another pair; tough she had several more in the closet. The buried slipper was finally recovered when the books were put back on their stacks. In another episode at home, she failed to locate one of her black suede 3-inch pumps when getting ready to go to a classical music concert. She was fully dressed and ready to leave by the time she realized her missing pump, and she had to walk around for nearly 20 minutes one heel off, in her search for the displaced pump. She finally located it in between the backside of shoe closet and the wall. Somehow, it had slipped off and fell behind. I did not miss the opportunity to picture her one-shod, as she paused for a moment during her search.

Setting a Shoe Trap

On return flight from our honeymoon in Egypt, my wife was dangling with her dark yellow two-inch pumps in the plane. At some point, she crossed her right leg over left, and the right pump fell off on the floor. Then, she slowly fell asleep and took a short nap. While she was asleep, I was worried that the pump might move around and get lost. So, I reached down to get it and put it inside the seat pocket just in front of her. When she woke up, she realized her missing shoe, and started searching it. I decided to tease her by not returning it for a while. So, unable to find her shoe on the floor, she had to stand up and walk back and forth through the aisle one-shod, searching for the errant one. A few other passengers joined the search, looking beneath the seats. When one of them called in a flight attendant and asked her to make an announcement through intercom, I decided things were getting out of control. I carefully put the pump back on floor and kicked it hard to make it disappear. She was still standing on the aisle one-shod, when I told her I had spotted her missing pump. She retrieved it and the episode was all over.

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.

Shoe Type

Loss of footwear is closely related with the choice of shoes. Backless models such as mules and slides, as well as classical pump type shoes with low vamp would slip off much more easily. Hence, they are natural candidates for shoe loss, at least momentary or temporary ones. Having an influence on the type of footwear to be worn by a woman is the shortcut to shoe loss.

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!

Ordinary Shoe Loss

Temporary loss or disappearance of footwear must be quite a frequent happening with females, and one way or another all women must have experienced it a few times. My wife is no exception.

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.

Cars and Shoes

An interesting feature that seems to commonly practiced by a large number of females is to remove shoes (more commonly only one of them) while driving. Supposedly, this helps them better feel the pedals especially when wearing high-heeled or backless footwear. While validity of this assumption is open to debate, one thing is certain: removal of footwear creates the perfect setting for shoe loss or shoe trap. In the web, there are several stories of women loosing their footwear because they had removed them while driving, and accidentally kicked or dropped off the car.

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.

More Escalator Trouble

In another adventure with escalators, she was on her way to a leading law office in town for a meeting. To avoid the rush hour traffic, she took the subway. Her outfit was navy blue pants/jacket summer dress, complemented by a pair of yellowish 2.5-inch mules worn barefoot, and briefcase. As her short journey underground was over and she was ready to take the escalator up, she found herself in a crowd of people rushing in the same direction, and piling up in front of the escalator. As she moved towards the moving surface of the escalator, someone kicked her heel (may be on purpose, maybe not). Her mule slipped off and she took another step leaving it behind. This was right at the spot where plain surface of escalator started forming steps. Since the escalator was packed with people, she could not see her mule anymore, nor could she see it. She had to keep her barefoot suspended in the air for a while and as she reached the top, she stepped aside to let people behind pass by. Finally her mule was in sight, three steps down from where she stood. She waited for it to reach where she was standing, put it back on and continued walking. She was quite worried that someone would take it away while it was out of sight, or worse, the person to have kicked it could have done so on purpose so as to steal her mule. Luckily for her, neither was the case and she avoided much longer one-shoe embarrassment.

Metro and Trains

This real story was taken from the website of a young woman. It is a proof that crowded subway cars are among the prime locations whereby females suffer loss of footwear. Here it is:

“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.

One-shod at Business Meeting

My wife is back with another experience!

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.

Stuck in mud - more

The following series of messages appeared short time ago in Jenny's Shoes and Heels Discussion Forum. The person to have posted them apparently had major trouble on muddy road leading her home, and it took her 3 days to recover a pump she lost in mud.

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.

Metro and Trains / More

Here is another real-life shoe loss incident in a London tube station, posted by Kristina on May 29, 2003 in jennyheels:

"...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."

Grids or Traps? #2

It seems this lady called Kristina may in fact have an eye on becoming the most frequent shoe accident person ever, even challenging my wife's track record on that account. She wrote on 21 May, 2003 again in the same website jennyheels:

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."

Keep Away Game

”Kinja” reports:

I got to witness a teen prank yesterday in church. Where I was sitting I could easily see under the pew a few rows up and to the right across the aisle. This was a row of all teenagers - boys and girls. There were 3 girls wearing thong sandals - not rubber flip flops, but a bot more substantial ones. The girl on the left wore platform style and the other two were flat heeled. This in itself was no big deal to watch, but eventually the girl on the left was wearing one of the flat heeled sandals and one of her platform ones and the middle girl was wearing one platform and nothing on the other foot. After awhile I could see her bare foot moving around looking for the other one. At the end, the two girls swapped to wear their correct shoes and the middle girl was left with one shoe. Both knelt down on the floor and looked under the pews in the are to see if it had been kicked. When they saw it was gone, I could tell they assumed one of the guys stole it and was playing keep away. They asked who had it and to give it back. She kept in one shoe the whole time. Eventually, after maybe 2 or 3 minutes, the guy gave up and gave her shoe back. I am guessing that the right girl may have helped move her shoe while it was off and they moved it down the aisle until someone picked it up.

Broken Straps

With strapped shoes so much in fashion, one intriguing question is what would happen if one of those straps is broken or it comes loose… Given the fragile nature of straps to be found in such styles, this appears to be quite a likely happening. Especially, for backless shoes (such as backless sandals, flip-flops etc), such mishap would translate into serious one-shoe problem for the owner. Years ago, as a teenager, I remember one such sighting. I was riding in a public bus, when this mid-aged woman with a small kid stepped in one-shod. It was summer, and she wore pair of backless mid-heel sandals, foot held in place with two thin straps. Apparently, one strap had come off. She carried the broken shoe in hand, as if she was trying to show everybody why she was in such one-shoe state. I also saw her get off at her stop, and since the bus was waiting at traffic light, I could see her walk all the way to the entrance of her apartment building, one-shod and sort of limping due to higher height of heel on one foot.

More recently, “NM” reported similar observation:

“… Just thought I'd share with you all what I was one morning this week on the way to work. The subway train pulled to a stop and the doors opened. As I was standing aside waiting for the crowd of people to get off the train, one of the women stepping out of the train had a strange limp. After she stepped out on to the platform, I noticed she was wearing these flat backless sandals (sort of like thongs but dressy) and she was dragging her left foot along the platform without lifting it. It was then I noticed that the strap was broken and that was the only way she could walk without losing it. I had to get on the train so I couldn't see what technique she used to climb the stairs but I had to wonder. Since it was morning, I also had to wonder how she managed the rest of the day. It was too early for any shoe stores to be open. Did she walk that way all the way to work? Did she get tired of trying to keep the broken sandal on her foot and just take it off and walk one-shod? Did she have an extra pair of shoes at work? Since these were dressy rather than casual sandals, maybe not. I just had to wonder.”

NM also reports two similar incidents from the past, both involving flip-flops: “One was about a decade ago. This woman was walking through the subway corridor wearing only one thong and being very deliberate about standing on only the tip-toes of her bare foot. Not surprising considering the dirty subway floor. And about two decades ago when I had a summer job in a fast food restaurant, this woman came in with two kids. She was also wearing only one thong. She told her kids to go order for her and then went and sat down. As they were leaving, I heard her tell her kids "We can't do that today, I only have one shoe". I can only assume the broken strap scenario in both cases.”

Days after this entry was made, I was able to see yet another incidence that appeared to have been caused by broken strap.

Early in the evening, I was driving through the hotel/nightclub district of the town. A young woman on the sidewalk walking side-by side with a mid-aged guy caught my eye: fairly attractive and neatly dressed (black slacks, blouse with open shoulders) and displaying slight limp.

As I closed in, I got better view: her left foot had a strapped sandal shoe (one or two thin straps around toe cleavage and another around ankle) with around 3-inch heel, whereas the right foot was bare. She walked quite smoothly and elegantly, tiptoeing on her bare foot, avoiding touching the ground except with her toes (presumably very dirty sidewalk).

I only had a short glimpse (driving at 30-40 mph on the left lane), but enough to see for sure that neither herself nor the guy next to her carried a shoe. She had a fairly small handbag hanging over her shoulder, but possibly too small to accommodate a shoe, and I would be surprised if she placed a dirty object like a shoe in her purse anyway. So, almost 100%, the missing shoe wasn’t with them. Unfortunately my wife was in the car; so I couldn’t pull up to investigate further!

What could have possibly happened to the missing shoe?

The most readily available scenario is a broken strap. Such footwear would become totally unwearable with a strap getting loose. But wouldn’t it make sense to carry the broken shoe in hand, so that it could be repaired and returned to use later? Who knows, perhaps she was involved in another incident whereby she did not have time to pick up her shoe, who knows?

Ordinary Shoe Loss - More

Under the title “Ordinary Shoe Loss”, my wife’s earlier shoe trouble while riding in a shuttle bus has already been described. More recently (fall 2003), she had similar experience once more. After suffering a very minor traffic accident, her car was in the paint shop, and for a few days she had to use public transport to get around the city. On one of those days, she was riding back home in a public bus after a business meeting. She wore smart business outfit (vest and trousers) complemented by a pair of fashionable high-heel pumps. She sat on an aisle seat, and having crossed her right leg over the left, her right foot stood extended into the aisle. At some point, she let her shoe drop on the floor to give her tired foot some comfort. Her shoe lay on the floor for a while. Then, the driver hit the brakes and she saw her shoe slide away. Before she could reach for it, the bus made a steep turn and this time her unattended shoe tumbled towards right, beneath the seat in front of her and got out of sight.

For a moment she was worried that her errant shoe would keep sliding towards and fall into the door gap, and that she may lose it for good if the bus made a stop and opened its doors before she could reach there. Yet, she stood up briskly and was comforted to see that between the seat in front and the door gap stood a wall-like structure. At least, her shoe would not plunge into the gap!

Now, her problem had become one of recovering her shoe without causing embarrassment to herself. But, she did not even now where exactly her missing shoe had ended up. The front seat was occupied by two younger chaps, and to her right sat an elderly man. Tyring not to attract too much attention, she tried to see beneath the seat, then fished for her pump using her nyloned foot, but to no avail. Thinking that she still had another 10-15 minutes ride before getting off, she thought it would be better to wait for the old man next to her get off so that she could renew her search with more liberty. Perhaps, she hoped, her misplaced pump might even slide back towards her the next time the bus accelerated. So, she placed her nyloned foot on top of her shoed left foot and continued her ride like that for a while.

Then, she saw the old man to her right slowly standing up and telling her “with your permission, I want to get off here”. She smiled back, and attempted to stand up and move to the aisle without stepping on the dirty floor with her shoeless right foot. But, she couldn’t do it and took a fast decision in telling to the elderly man: “Would you mind passing on my shoe? It must be somewhere around your feet”. The man looked down surprised, and replied “I ain’t see any bags here”. Obviously, he had found it unimaginable for someone to have lost a shoe already on her foot, and he was looking instead for a bag containing pair of shoes or something. Giving up hope that the old man would be of help, she moved to the aisle jumping on her left foot (and right foot suspended in the air), and let the man get out. She then sat back, reclined under the seat in front and finally spotted her errant shoe, held up in place at the far corner by a heating apparatus. Too far to be retrieved by hand, she had to extend her foot and after a few trials, she managed to get her shoe back on. And her shoe loss adventure for the day was over.

Metros and Trains – Part Three

Accounts of shoe loss getting on metro trains seem to accumulate faster than any other categories in this page. Here is another one, appeared under the title “Lucy’s Book” on Sep 30th, 2003 in a website :

“That evening I went to catch my usual train at Vauxhall station. I stepped up onto the train when it arrived... and left my shoe behind on the platform. It was a little ballet type shoe that just slipped off my foot. And then, I stepped back down to try to hook the shoe back on, and managed to kick it down off the platform underneath the train. Clever huh? I was so shocked I couldn't think what to do. I was between the doors of the train and my first instinct was just to get on the train, so I did. Of course, I then realised that I should have stayed on the platform and tried to get it back! But instead I felt like a right idiot sitting there with one shoe on the train, and everyone around me was just ignoring it like they tend to do in London. I think I might have felt better if someone had at least laughed!

Anyway it wasn't too bad in the end. My friend Lee had texted me earlier asking if he could stay with me for the night cos he had a gigs in the area - he's a musician. I was supposed to be meeting him but I called him and asked him to come pick me up from at Barnes Bridge station instead. I had to wait about half an hour for him to find the bloody station, freezing my ass off with one shoe, but it was ok in the end.”

Off the Car

Another real-life story whereby the backless shoe fell off the car, never to be found. As described by the lady herself in a website:

“Tonight I arrived home like Cinderella, minus one shoe. I wonder how it happened. I checked the van thoroughly, peeked into the shopping bags we brought home with us and pondered about it for awhile. We had been out doing errands and by 7 P.M. I was dead tired. I decided not to eat out tonight as all I wanted to do was go home. I suppose I was too eager to get in the van, kick off my shoes, and stretch out. The photo is the remaining shoe and as you can see, its quite easy to slip in and out of. I am thinking of making the 15 mile drive to the last store we were at to look for it. My husband thinks I should just buy a new pair. But he does not understand. This is a dark denim mule and I just found the matching pants to go with it. How can I let go now? I have tons of shoes but only one in denim. And do they still make them with silver inner soles? Certainly, this will be a hard one to replace. So I remain hopeful: Did a kind person put it aside so it wouldn't get crushed by oncoming vehicles? Or did it get trampled by the next car that parked after us? Oh, what silly concerns.”

Picnicking, Wedding, Down in Africa

Nigel has contributed the following real-life accounts. He heard them first-hand from the subjects of the loss:

“… 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!

Spy who lost her shoe

It seems that loss of footwear could happen to all women; female spies being no exception! Kinja has come across with this very interesting account of a Russian spy to have left behind one of her shoes at an Australian airport back in 1954. This website provides a more detailed description of the event:

The event still remembered as “Petrov Affair”, Australia’s greatest spy story was played out against the backdrop of the Cold War, in Canberra. A Russian diplomat on duty at the Soviet Embassy in Canberra defected to Australian authorities while on a trip to Sydney. When he did not return from Sydney, (his wife) Mrs Petrov was in virtual house arrest by Soviet officials. She would have been confused and afraid as she was living in fear since the Soviets told her Mr Petrov was dead. The best thing she could do was leave for the Soviet Union.

On 19 April, Soviet officials Mr Karpinsky and Mr Zharkov forcibly dragged a drugged Mrs Petrov to Sydney so she could catch a plane from Sydney to Moscow. Before the plane left Sydney, Mrs Petrov was dragged through a crowd of anti-communists protestors, who believed Mrs Petrov was being taken back to Russia against her will. As the crowd jostled the group in an attempt to free Mrs Petrov, she lost one of her shoes—the famous red shoe. When the plane arrived at Darwin at 5am the next morning, the local police and a man called Brigadier Spry of ASIO attempted to talk to Mrs Petrov in private. Once again Mrs Petrov was the centre of conflict as the local police struggled with the two Soviet Union couriers to get her off the plane to safety. Once in safety she talked to her husband, saying 'I am staying with you'. She was then immediately taken into a safe house.

The next day the Petrov affair was no longer only Australian news. British and American newspapers filled pages with the Petrov conflict. A newsreel was played before movies showing Mrs Petrov losing her shoe. Britain and America gave Australia their full support. And the Affair had a profound and lasting impact on the fabric of Australian society and directly contributed to the Labor Party Split of 1955. Ever since, the photograph of Mrs Petrov at Mascot airport has been deeply etched in the Australian memory.

What’s more interesting, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Petrov Affair, Australia’s Old Parliament House decided to find out the fate of Mrs. Petrov’s errant shoe. “What happened to the red shoe? Where is it? Is it actually red? News footage shows that one of the crowd picked up the shoe. Has someone kept it? Did it stay in Australia or go overseas?” Those having any information about the red shoe are asked to contact Old Parliament House.

Plane Loss

On July 26 & 27, 2004 the following rounds of messages appeared in FODORS Message Forum (thanks to Kinja for spotting them):

Marilyn: My friend slipped her shoes off to be more comfortable on a recent NY-SF flight. When she went to put them on again, only one could be found. She checked in front, behind, and to the side -- no shoe. She waited until everyone else had deplaned and enlisted the aid of the flight attendant in her search, but still no shoe. She thinks it slid forward into someone's open carryon and they unknowingly walked off with it. She did feel pretty silly getting off the plane barefoot, and she was miffed because she liked that pair of shoes quite a lot. I guess she should be thankful her luggage showed up so she could put on another pair of shoes before leaving the airport.

Neal Sanders: Marilyn, your friend has a soulmate in the person who sat in the window seat of my row just a few weeks ago on a New York-Boston shuttle flight. She kicked off her shoes as she boarded and was sound asleep before takeoff. Upon landing (just 40 minutes later), one of her shoes was nowhere to be seen. When I deplaned ten minutes later, she was still searching for it, and everyone around her had confirmed that her shoe (one of those very low-profile jobs) was still on the MIA list.

Gail: During a recent power failure at my office (which is really a windowless glorified closet in the lower level of and assisted living apartment building for elderly) I was caught having slipped my shoes off. I was only able to find one, even crawling under my desk in the dark. Then the fire alarm went off - somehow connected to power failure - and as the nurse I had to collect elderly confused people while wearing one shoe.

TravelerGina: I've never lost a shoe but I watched a poor little old lady lose one during all the shoving as she was getting off a crowded metro in Rome and try frantically to find someone to retrieve it from the tracks.

Mind the Big Waves

Thanks to Nigel’s website I have become aware of the following loss reported in October 2003, under “alt-fashion” topic of a Google Group in UK:

“Around 1991 or 92, I had a pair of Sam & Libby ballet flats. The leather ones with the bow. I really loved the shoes back then and I had 3 pairs. One evening my now-husband-then-boyfriend were driving back to my parents' house (we were in college and visiting them on a break) after dinner or a movie (or maybe both, I forget) and stopped at the beach because it was a nice night. This particular beach has nice sand so I took my shoes off to walk on it. I set the shoes down away from the water and was about ten or fifteen feet from them, squishing my toes around in the sand in front of the water. Suddenly, and without warning, a wave much bigger than the ones before it came up and broke and the water came up past where I was standing. I turned around to check on my shoes and watched in horror as the wave mercilessly grabbed one of them and swept it into the water! I ran and tried to grab it, chasing my shoe in the surf, but it was to no avail. It got away too fast; before long it was just gone. I had to go home with only one shoe! I kept the widowed shoe for a long time - I have no idea why, but it was hard to get rid of. I still wonder how far my shoe traveled and if it got eaten by a giant fish or found by someone who could use it... you know, like a one-legged lady pirate.”

This account has also got a reply, describing another shoe loss by “Vicki in DC”: “I *sort of* lost a shoe at a party many moons ago. I had entirely too much to drink, got shoved into my friends' pool and fished out. The next day (mind you, it took me THIS long to realize one of my shoes was missing) I found my one shoe in the bottom of the pool – of course at the deepest part of the deep end. Now I really can't swim well at all and had a massive hangover so one of my friends dove in and got it back for me. I think I actually still wore the shoes after that. The one that soaked overnight in the pool survived it pretty well.”

Watch out! Shoe Thief!

On October 27th, 2003, Associated Press ran the following news story:

“Man Accused of Stealing 440 Left Shoes”

TOKYO (AP) -- Police arrested a man for stealing shoes at a southern Japanese hospital then found a collection in his home of 440 women's shoes - all for the left foot. The private hospital in Usu city, 500 miles south of Tokyo, began receiving complaints two years ago from patients and employees that shoes removed at the entrance hall were disappearing. In Japan, it is customary to remove shoes before entering homes and some public facilities. The missing footwear was always for the left foot and in a women's shoe style, a local police spokesman said Sunday. Ichiro Irie, 45, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of having stolen two leather shoes the previous day during one of his twice-weekly hospital visits, the spokesman said. In Irie's home, police found a box in a closet overflowing with the left mate to 440 pairs of women's shoes, including high heels, patent leather pumps, sandals and nurses shoes. When questioned about the alleged thefts, Irie told police he had "a penchant for women's feet," the Yomiuri newspaper, a major daily, said. It was not clear why he may have preferred the left foot.

Well, I have no intention to praise that guy for what he did; harming other people by taking possession of their belongings (be it a simple shoe or otherwise) is a mischievous behavior. Period. Yet, just imagine those 440 women stranded wearing one shoe. Quite intriguing…

Then, thanks to “Nigel C” who was kind enough to share an e-mail from a friend, we have a glimpse of the events afterwards, from the perspective of a woman subjected to shoe theft. The subject, called Rachel resides in US and below what she experienced a while ago:

“She went to this bar when she was in California. She was sitting at a table with her friend and this guy walked up to her and said he dropped his cell phone and his friend accidentally kicked it under the table. Rachel permitted him to go under and get it. By the way, she was wearing pumps. The guy grabbed his cell, and walked away thanking her. Her friend soon after dropped her lighter and went to pick it up. She then noticed that one of Rachel’s pumps were gone. Rachel wondered why she felt bumping under her foot. The guy was nowhere to be found. Worse yet, that’s the only shoes she brought on the trip. She went to work next day and her “partner” (person working with her on the project) noticed the difference. She explained the situation and the guy took her over to his house and told his wife the story. His wife started laughing, and gave Rachel a pair for her to keep it.”

According to “Nigel C”, this wasn’t the only shoe loss experience by Rachel. She posted the following note in misterpoll called “Have you ever lost a shoe?”

“I used to live in New York City with my aunt. One time I visited the Statue of Liberty. I was wearing these cute Mary Jane pumps. On the way back to the boat to get off Liberty Island, the strap on my right shoe broke. As I went to get on to the boat, the right shoe slipped off and fell into the water. I was soooo embarrassed. Luckily for me, I was on my way home. I gave the other shoe that I had left to my boyfriend. But, it's a shame since I really loved those shoes.”

Roller Coaster

The following was posted by “Carcrusher” in a message forum. It is indicative of the dangers at game parks…

“In the summer 2003 me and my girlfriend were at six flags great adventure in N.J. My girlfriend is 18 years of age and her height is 5'9'' and has blonde hair. She wears sneakers but doesn't tie them. In about the middle of the day we decided to go on the Batman roller coaster. It is a ride where your feet dangle. We sat right in the front. In about closer to the beginning of the ride she yells out "o shit my shoe!" Well, she lost her left sneaker. She finished the ride wearing one shoe. After the ride we asked the ride attendant if the shoe could be recovered. He said NO! She was mad. She lost a white airforce one sneaker about size 7.5. We went on other rides that day and she continued wearing only one shoe. She was also wearing white socks. That was a fun day! I wounder what happened to the shoe.”

Historical Loss

What “Beaufru” posted in yahoo group “lost her shoe” awhile ago:

“Today I had an interesting sighting although not one shoe as such. I was watching documentary about WWII and there were various cuts showing excited civilian crowds cheering victorious German army in Berlin in 1940. Suddenly and interesting cut was shown - a close-up of soldiers’ legs marching along the street and a lonely black high heeled shoe standing between them. Soldiers were actually marching past that shoe. An interesting issue was also that the shoe was standing, not lying on side. The cut was to be shown just for a couple of seconds. I don't think that woman ever got that shoe back. I also wonder how many women were left half-shod during that celebration.”

Celebrity Troubles

An actual shoe loss from one of the paparazzi shows on TV; one of those shows dealing with private lives of celebrities. At the height of summer months, producers of such programs follow singers, actors, fashion models etc throughout coastal resorts; capturing their shots while dancing, swimming, kissing a girlfriend / boyfriend and so on. In this particular shoe, one of the subjects was a second-rate male singer to have faded away recently. Anyway, they caught him dancing with his girlfriend at a crowded outdoor disco complete with swimming pool. She was a fairly attractive blonde, sort of medium height. At one point, he was shown dancing with another woman, whereas she watched him from a distance – apparently somewhat disgusted. And then, she was somehow thrown into the swimming pool by her celebrity boyfriend, when she was still fully clothed. The camera caught on with it when she was swimming to the side and climbing up the pool’s ladder. In the background, floating at the centre of the large swimming pool, was a solitary slide-type footwear, apparently hers. Naturally, she got out of the pool all soaked. She was not enjoying the experience at all – to the contrary she seemed to be mad. The boyfriend was not anywhere to be seen. She hastily walked away from the pool, minus one of her black slides – sort of a platform heel, 2 or 3-inch high with small and forward-positioned strap. She briefly walked back to where she was thrown into the pull, to pick-up her missing footwear, one would think. But, no! She collected her purse, turned around and rushed out of the disco in one shoe. The camera followed her throughout – and beautifully captured her one-shoe limp. She went away leaving behind her floating shoe, obviously for good for that evening. Either she was too embarrassed (paparazzi camera zooming on her all the time) or too angry, or perhaps both.

Car Troubles

Those two postings were first located by “Kinja”; and I borrow them from him… The first one is from the freelance authors section of Fredericksburg.com, posted by Sunny Lynn on May 15, 2005:

“I lost one shoe in the road, as I made the four-hour trip from Richmond back to VPI (now Virginia Tech) It was the spring of 1951, and there were no interstates then. I stopped about 9 p.m. at the crossroads to let out a VMI hitchhiker. There was a little country store across the road. When we reached home, I had only one high-heeled shoe on the floor of the back seat (my only pair, as we were "starving students"). So I addressed a letter to "Country Store" at the crossroads where I'd stopped, and included a self-addressed postcard. I explained my dilemma and asked if they would look across the road and see if my shoe was still there. The store owner replied. He'd crossed the road at 9:10 p.m. to mail a letter--and found my shoe. He took it back to the store. Lucky for me. We fetched the shoe on our next trip to Richmond. I am now the owner of 30 pairs of dress shoes.

The second one was posted by “Julie”on April 16, 2004 in a blogs site:

“So, I was getting out of the car this morning on the corner of east-west hwy and Colesville Rd. (where I hop on the metro), and my left shoe falls onto the road. OK, no problem, I think. Let me just gather my things and slip it back on when I get out. I also notice the big gaping sewer hole underneath the curb, but think, my shoe can't possibly fall in there. And then it happens. The shoe tips over, and before my head even registers what's going on, my shoe is completely gone. I watched it disappear into the sewer hole. Seriously! All the way completely in the hole to the point where I can't even see it. So I turn to Simon, and mind you, the light has been red for a while, so it's going to turn green at any moment, and I tell him. "my shoe fell..." and he just stares back at me like he doesn't understand the problem. I then swing my feet back into the car, and show him. "My shoe! It's gone!" and point to the gutter. OK, at this point, I'm thinking..."Julie... quick use your brain, you cannot go to work with one shoe" and in the nick of time, I shut the door as the light turns green. Then Simon drives on and pulls into the next parking lot. "You're not joking?" he asks me. I'm still bewildered by the fact that I really lost my shoe. Luckily, there is a CVS in that shopping center, and I ask him kindly to go in there to get me a pair of flip-flops. Surely they'd have flip-flops in CVS, right? I really don't know why I thought that, but it just made sense that they'd have it..... They sell cookies, drugs, makeup, and candles, so why not flip-flops, right? Simon is such a sweetie, he doesn't even question it, just rushes into the store, to find me a pair of temporary shoes. Just as I was thinking "gosh, what would I do if they don't have any? Drive all the way back home?" he comes back, holding, not an ugly black pair of cheap sandals, but a pair of cute fuscia flip-flops! "These were the closest to the color of your dress I could find" he says....Hahaha. They actually match what I had on today. And they're comfortable to boot. Oh, he also told me to stop inventing excuses to buy new shoes....”

Metros and Trains – Part 4

Besides concerts, trains and metro cars appear to be the prime locations of permanent shoe loss. Here is another account, posted posted on January 17, 2005:

“… Recently my sister was travelling back from Gatwick after a gruelling week in the Netherlands, negotiating with the hardest of Dutch businessmen. As she struggled with her bags to board the Gatwick Express that was about to leave, an unfriendly man behind her hassled her, "For goodness sake hurry up". Flustered, my sister lurched inside the train and in one smooth action lost one of her shoes between the gap and watched it fall onto the rails below the train. Panicked, rather than get off the train to negotiate shoe removal with the nearest Railtrack employee, she sat in her seat with just the one remaining shoe as the train left the platform. She then spent the rest of the journey wondering how she was going to get home to south London with one shoe. Pulling herself together (and, bless her, making a phone call to mum to ask for some kind of help), she got off the train at Victoria and hopped to find a station manager who could help her. One call from the station manager and a return trip to Gatwick she was met again at the other end by a young uniformed man, smirking as he held her shoe in his hand. This would have been a more magical story if he had turned out to be her Prince Charming. Sadly not, but she did get the shoe back in one piece and made me laugh for days at the thought of her hopping across the station concourse.

Down the Grate!

Kinja’s November 2005 update of his page produced a wealth of first-hand accounts of shoe loss. I am grateful for he meticulously searches through the cyberspace, and picks out those splendid accounts of interest for all of us…

This is the first entry borrowed from the webpage of a woman by the name “Susan”. She sure does have a sense of humour. She refers to her account as “Dumfounded and Shoeless”:

“One of the few good things about my lame-o day job is the fact that the dress code is very, very casual. ... It's really quite spectacular that I never have to don things like stockings, heels, business suits, or any other obnoxious office-style attire. I pretty much dress the same during the week as I do on the weekend, and this includes footwear. Today I have on black sandals that are not quite flip-flops in that they do not make that annoying thwack-thwack-thwack sound when I walk, but are similar in that they are flat and completely comfortable. They are what most retailers call "slides" because they don't have that little thing that goes between your toes that officially makes them "thongs." I simply call them the best summer sandals ever. And they were cheap too--- I think I paid like $12.00 for them last summer. In short, I love these shoes.

Or, I should say, loved these shoes.

As I walked to the bank to make the daily deposit, my right sandal slipped off my foot, and because I was in the process of walking, the sandal actually flew forward off my foot and landed some distance away---and then proceeded to slip right between the cracks of a street grate. If I hadn't seen it happen with my own shocked eyes I never would have believed it. I half-hopped over to the grate and looked in, but it was too dark and way to far down to see my poor sandal. I could picture it down there, stunned after a long fall and wondering why it was suddenly off it's foot and in a dark, smelly place underground. Poor little shoe.

And it only got better from there, as I realized I now had to walk into the bank and stand in line for the teller while wearing only one shoe. I considered removing the other one and acting like it's perfectly natural to walk a block from your office to the bank barefoot, but then thought they probably have that "NO SHOES, NO SHIRT, NO SERVICE" policy, and I wasn't in the mood to be disciplined after my loss.

So I held my head up high and walked into the bank as naturally as possible considering one foot was now bare and rather dirty, and due to the difference in height I had to sort of walk on the ball of my right foot like an ostritch. The few other customers in line looked at me, and then looked quickly away---like I was a filthy crazy woman who might freak out at any time. When I got to the teller, a pleasant Russian woman who often waits on me, she looked concerned, and asked me if I was OK. I told her yes, and decided not to regale her with a lengthy explanation.

Maybe I'll start a trend. Maybe I'll go back to the bank on Monday and all the tellers will be wearing only one shoe. The look will spread to both coasts, and we'll start to see the rich and famous sporting only one shoe at movie premieres and night-clubs. It will start to mean something if you choose to wear a right shoe rather than a left, and a whole subculture will develop. The size of shoe boxes will become smaller, of course, meaning that stores can stock twice as many on shelves. This will affect how shoe racks are designed, as well as closets, and eventually homes and home accessories. Foyers everywhere will be outfitted with a sign that says "Kindly Remove Your Shoe," and there will also be a basin with soapy water and a stack of towels to wash the exposed foot before entering. Special foot care products will appear on the market to pamper everyone's one bare foot, as it is constantly exposed and must look its best. Lone bare feet---and no other body parts--- will begin to appear on the covers of magazines like "Us" and "People." Websites will be designed to better serve the foot, and to match up people by their choices in feet. It will become obsolete to shake hands, and it will become the norm to rub bare feet as a greeting. The origins of all this will never be traced to me, of course, and I will live out my life with the knowledge that I secretly altered the world.

Then again, maybe not. Maybe I'll just deal with the fact that I had to sheepishly hop-walk back to my office and spend the rest of my day wondering how it'll look when I have to walk to the parking lot and get in my car in this condition. … So, if you wear a size six shoe and can spare one (right foot, please), please Fed Ex it to me before 4pm. I will be eternally grateful, if only to stop my co-workers from calling me "Hop-Along" and "Shoeless Sue Jackson."

Assorted Losses

Another first-hand account found by Kinja is by a college student vacationing in Mexico:

“… For those of you who are not CSS friends, you might not know that my friends and I are each a Disney princess. I am Cinderella. And part of my story came true on Tuesday night!

Half of us decided to take the bus because it's cheaper and it drove by before a taxi did. Bad idea! This is the rainy season...and it can rain really really hard. As we were riding downtown, it started to pour. I've never seen it rain so hard in my life! The driver kept having to pull over to wipe off the windshield. He couldn't see where he was going. When we got downtown (remember that the city is in the mountains so the roads are very steep), the three of us stepped off the bus and into a huge puddle that was flowing down the street. I was wearing flip-flops, and as I stepped up onto the sidewalk, one of them was washed away down the street! I tried to run and catch it, but the cement was really slippery and it's hard to run with only one shoe. So I gave up on that and just kept walking with one shoe. The people waiting on the sidewalk were quite amused to see a gringa walking down the street in one sandal. The guy we were walking with suggested that I stop in a shoe store and buy another pair of shoes, since one doesn't do me much good. So I threw away my other shoe and walked in barefoot. Luckily I found another pair of cheap flip-flops. But sizes are different in the US. A saleslady helped me, but she didn't find my story as amusing as I did…”

And here is the third real-life shoe loss posted by “Vicki in DC”. Most probably, she is the same one to have appeared under the “Mind the Big Waves” entry above:

“… As for what I need, I actually need another pair of black shoes. I was wearing my black snake print loafers to pay respects to my dad over the holidaze. It was muddy mess at Arlington National, I charged forth and um, and all I can say is I got eaten by the mud and lost one shoe there. I looked like someone from that recent mud footrace that happened in the UK. I have other black loafers but these were by far and away the most comfortable I had. The groundskeepers are going to wonder when they dig up the one black shoe. But then again, it was so muddy, I imagine they will lots of odd shoes there…”

Still another account, told by a college student named Sarah:

“… Spring Break… Towards the end of the night I went into the woods to pee behind a tree and when I got up I turned around and tripped over a log.. and my sneaker flew off my foot into the woods. So Megan and Kristen came back to help me find it and we combed the woods as best we could for awhile but couldn't find it. So I walked around without a shoe on and Kristen made sure to let everyone know that Sarah Boyd was walking around with only one shoe on. I was trying to be soo careful about where I was walking because there was broken glass all over the ground. We went to my friend Ray's at 17A and he gave me two pairs of socks which I put on under my own sock so at least I had some padding…”

Last but not least is an interesting announcement made under the title “Claim your missing Lightning game shoe”:

“Tampa, Florida - Crews worked all day cleaning up the remnants of the Stanley Cup Finals celebration at the Forum. They found plenty of beer bottles and newspapers... but one of the more interesting finds was a shoe.

Buried in the debris was one ladies dress shoe.

If you're missing this shoe, here's what it looks like: Black Olivia Rose Tal shoe with a diamond buckle, Genuine Leather, Made in New York , 2-inch heel, Size 10.

Arrange to pick up your missing shoe by producing the matching one. Email us at lifearoundthebay@tampabays10.com.”

Never Ending Train Losses

As the number of shoe loss accounts continue to grow, trains and metros single out as the primary scenes of shoe loss, only to be challenged in this respect by rock concerts and similar mass gatherings (if you don’t believe, check out webshots to see how many teenagers end up losing their flip-flops in such settings!). The following are yet another round losses precipitated by metros and trains.

The first one was posted on October 20, 2005 by Ashley:

“… For those of you who live in the northeast (NYC) you know how the weather has been well....CRAPPY. It’s been miserable -- cold, rainy, literally the worst weather known to man. Besides 10 feet of snow, but we won't go there. This past week also has corresponded with my final week of putting together the final presentation of my project, so that means I get to spend hundreds of dollars on materials etc. On Wednesday of last week I was making one of those many trips into NYC to blow money on boards, paper and other supplies, all while it is POURING out. Of course do I have an umbrella? Not a chance that either me or my roommate are prepared. So I go into the city early before class to go pick out boards and purchase them. I really should have just stayed home when I got soaking wet running from my apartment to my car. I should have REALIZED what kind of day it was going to be like. But I never listen to my intuition, my gut feelings, EVER, so I catch the train (barely made it, sign number two that I should have stayed home) and head down to the city. Once I arrive I catch the subway over to Times Square and then I transfer to the 1 train. Sign number 3 coming up: the train was already there and I was going to miss it. So I run down the stairs run across the platform and step inside the train and whoooooooooooosh I slip. One foot in the car, one foot out.

It gets better. My legs are not meant to go to splitsville, but that’s what they did. And while my one foot inside the car is just ice skating across the car floor, my other foot goes right between the platform and the car. Really great place to be. At that point the guy behind me picks me up and while doing so my foot gets caught in that little gap. So of course I'm focusing on getting my foot out of the gap before the door closes on my ankle and all pain breaks loose. So I get my foot out and whoops. There goes my shoe. Did I mention I was wearing FLIPFLOPS? What kind of idiot does that?!?! Oh wait, that would be me!

Yes you read right. My shoe. Is gone. Fell right onto the tracks. So there I am, standing on one leg, barefoot in the disgusting subway. I hop out (literally) at the next stop and hop upstairs, and then hop around 34th street looking for a shoe store. I seriously felt homeless and probably looked it, at this point. And of course there are lakes and streams of water everywhere and I have to step in all of them because hopping doesn't really work that well. I dashed inside Old Navy and grabbed the first pair of boots I saw. Meanwhile the two sales people have heard my story and are sitting on the ground laughing hysterically. I would be too if I weren't hoppity the frog and missing a shoe. (Once I was dry I had a great laugh, until I realized those $3 flipflops cost me 30 bucks.)

Soo the moral of the story is: Don't ever go into the city in the pouring rain again. Oh yeah and don't wear flipflops in the rain either.

To help you visualize what this could have possibly looked like, those are 2 photos I’ve come across in webshots. The accompanying caption was; “Caroline lost her shoe in the gap between the platform and the subway (while visiting Rome)”.

“Snowman” was kind enough to recently contribute the following account, told by “GP”: “A close friend of mine and I were on the homeward leg of our daily rail and bus journey some weeks back. It began with short trip by EMU (Electric multiple unit) train and continued beyond the rail network by bus. I boarded the EMU at an earlier station and Doreen was to join me at the next one. She failed to check the weather forecast and was wearing flat backless shoes because her feet hurt from overdoing the heels earlier in the week. A heavy weather front swept in suddenly carrying a blizzard. In her haste to board one of her shoes neatly dropped into the gap, but caught itself between the train and the platform. I was in a seat and got up when I say her turn and kneel. I didn’t need to be told why. I knew that morning that those shoes were trouble. If she had jumped off she could have reached the shoe, but she wanted to keep her foot dry so she reached town from inside the train which was 6 or 8 inches higher than the platform. When I got to her, the buzzer was sounding for doors closing, and in the mad scramble to get off and rescue the shoe, the EMU retained the one that boarded. So now she was in three inches of slush wearing nothing more than thin opaque red nylon socks… The scream she let out from the shock of warm feet hitting the cold slush was blood curdling. But now the first deserter was on the track bed four feet or more below us, and the other was enjoying a free ride on the EMU. The station attendant refused to help because of the train density (or he just wanted to get a good eyefull). After an hour of looking over the edge, letting trains go by and making plans to jump down and get up between trains, I made her abandon it… The snow was not letting up, and our bus journey was over two hours. ... A short uncomfortable walk through a combination of snow and slush got her to the bus. The bus journey took over five hours and … the bus dropped her near her door later that night and the danger passed.

One more train loss and one of taxi

The following is just another blog account of train loss by “sunkissfish”, posted on April 7, 2006:

“This sounds like an essay you write when you are in primary school. Up till today, i have yet experienced anything so embarrassing. Make a guess? It has something to do with the MRT station. Previously, i got stuck in a gap on the floor and broke my strap. I had to walk to work in a funny manner.

Today was the ultimate. While i was boarding the train, my shoe hit upon the ledge of the train. And next, it was missing from my foot. The man standing beside me said, "I think your shoe has fallen into the hole." To my horror, i saw a bit of my shoe trapped in the gap between the ledge and the train. Immediately, i stepped out of the train and walked semi-barefooted to look for help. I saw a station staff nearby and approached him.

"er, my shoe has dropped down the railway track."

Staff A replied,"Don't worry. You just stand aside and relax."

I thought: how to relax? So embarrassing. The commuters on the platform are piling up and they see this girl without one shoe.

Staff A radioed for help and soon staff B appeared with a snake catcher. When the train had gone, he used it to hook up my shoe. Yay, shoe rescued. So MRT staff are essential. A BIG thank you. But then i had to fill in a form about their level of service. I complied cos they had helped me. I wrote: professional in their management (cos they din laugh at me. then again, mabbe something like that had happened before)…”

Yet another account of a shoe left behind in a cab… The owner has even run a post in the classifieds section of a web journal, in an attempt to recover her errant shoe!

“FRIDAY night can often be a pantomime for a real life Swindon Cinderella. Sarah Leighfield, 25, has broken a foot in the past but now her favourite shoes have suffered. One of them disappeared. Now she is hoping that Prince Charming will return it to her. Sarah lost a sparkly shoe on the way home from her Christmas party. And she would like anybody who finds it to get in touch. Sarah said:

"I'm upset because I got the shoes for my birthday and they were expensive. They are lovely, with four-inch stiletto heels and sequinned straps. I don't usually dress up in a very feminine way and this was my little lady-like touch."

Sarah and the rest of her department had their Christmas party, but when Sarah tried to get a taxi home the shoe went missing.

"I went into a taxi but the driver said he was booked", she said. "At that point I was holding the shoes in my hand because they were hurting my feet. The taxi drove off but then I realised I only had one shoe."

She contacted all the cab companies in the area but realised she must have left her shoe in a black Hackney Carriage and would not be able to trace the driver. Now she is hoping that whoever has the shoe will read this article and return it to her. "It would be great if some nice fella had it," she said.”

School silliness

Two accounts of shoes taken away at school by friends (or rivals?) trying to be silly…Both posted in yahoo group karenshighheelshoe. The first one posted by “Snydley” on Oct 25, 2005:

“I've only gotten a really nasty glare once and that was in high school when one of the girls had one of her shoes stolen and never got it back. She was livid and very ticked about someone stealing just one of her shoes. Why not both? She was fuming who would want to steal just one shoe? She had to spend the rest of the day at school in just the one high heel she had and when she saw anyone looking at her feet, she would just give them the iciest cold stare you could imagine. I had nothing to do with her shoe loss and have no idea who did steal her shoe, but she was such a snob to other classmates I think someone really did it out of spite because of her attitude. Even so and even with the icy glares, it was nice for me since she was in my last 4 classes of the day and the assembly was first thing in the morning. So she ended up in one shoe very early. (she had a part as an indian squaw which required her to do the part in her barefeet). So whomever stole her shoe probably tossed it in a dumpster somewhere or who knows where. Just know she really was not happy about her single shoe dilemma at school for the day.

The second by “Karen”, posted on December 11, 2005:

“The only time I have seen someone wearing one shoe and one slipper or alike was at school when a girl had her shoe taken off by some boys and thrown onto the roof and she came to school for the rest of the week wearing one shoe and one slipper until they took her slipper, then she put on a plimsol and was like that for the whole week. I did enjoy the sight of her wearing 2 white socks and one black lace up shoe but wasn't too interested in the odd footwear. I do remember at school we did swap one shoe with each other and often I lost one for the day. It was common if a girl had new shoes to take one off of her for the day.”

Train Loss – Both Shoes!

Accounts of train losses keep arriving. Below is still another blog account:

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...

Another wife mishap – at business meeting…

After quite a few months without a shoe loss happening, my wife finally endured another happening, few months back into summer.

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…

Kraft Gardens – Winter Park, Florida

“Simon” contributed this shoe loss account suffered by her wife. I took the liberty of summarizing it so as to fit the general format of this page.

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.

Broken Slide

A young woman in her mid-20s working in my wife’s office (a legal consulting firm) showed up one morning hopping on one foot, and missing the shoe on her other. Here is the full account:

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.

Lost in Cavern

In her blog site, Lizzy describes her shoe loss inside a cavern:

“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.”

Abyss in Coat Room

This interesting account to have appeared in Zombietwist blog site: “Tonight was the night that Anne, Julie, Tanya and I went Goth clubbing. Yup, you read that right. Goth clubbing. Now, the night started off as expected. We got dressed up. We took pretentious black and white pictures. We drove to the club. An insane taxi cab driver almost plowed into Anne’s car. You know, normal stuff.

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…”

Elevators

Ronda Jamgotchian, a TV entertainer gave the following account account of her shoe loss:

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.

Amazing! 4 more train losses!

However amazing it may seem, below are 4 more accounts of shoe loss experienced while getting on or off trains. Ladies, better watch your shoes when using rail transport, as it seems the prime cause of loss of footwear.

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.”

One More Train, One More Escalator

A female Londoner gives this interesting account:

“… 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. …”

Monorail, Monoshoe!

Posted by “the Princess” in disboards:

“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!

Fashion Shows

Shoes slipping off models’ feet are frequent happenings of fashion shows. For the ones caught and aired by TV, my movies page already includes several such accounts. Yet, there are certainly thousands and thousands of others not captured or aired on TVs. Below are some examples I was able to find on the web. Please note that some are permanent losses, in which the fashion model ends up not recovering her shoe at all:

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.

Milan.

Recife: Brazil.

Alton Primorskyaya .

One more Milan .

Unknown fashion show .

Another unknown fashion show.

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.

Chanel in Taxi

The following account was from a blog site was discovered and contributed by “Kinja”: Concerns an expensive pump left in a Dublin cab:

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."

Over-Served, Under-Shod!

Another blog site discovery by “Kinja”: young woman who left behind her sling-back while picking-up her car from valet parking:

“… 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.

Two Overboards, Four Over the Tracks!

Accounts of shoe loss while getting on train seem to never end. To complement them this time are two sea-going happenings. Enjoy them…

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!”

Abyss in Paris

Below is the blog account of an American girl living in Paris. She loses her slip-on shoe getting on metro.

“This day was perfection, and I was in happy-daydream-mode as I waited for the metro. I quickly exited happy-daydream-mode when I stepped into the metro car and realized that something was not quite right. I looked down. Ah, yes. One of my shoes was missing, and I was standing in the middle of the train with one bare foot. Quite strange, really, because this foot had had a shoe on it not two seconds earlier... I was sure of it. I turned around just in time to see the little bastard slip into the gap between the platform and the train—plummeting to its death on the tracks below.

I didn't need to gasp in horror because everyone around me on the train had already done so. So I just froze in a state of stupefied shock. Luckily, there was a go-getter next to me who pulled me back onto the platform and immediately started scheming about ways to get the shoe back. In the meantime, the conductor noticed the commotion and turned off the train, which, as you can imagine, made me quite popular with the hundreds of metro-riders within. My shoe was down there, but it could not be reached with the train in its current position. My friend gave up (apparently not such a go-getter after all), and the conductor told me to wait there. The authorities were coming. Il faut pas descendre. Do not try to go onto the tracks. And like that, they were gone.

The platform was now deserted, save for me and a dazed homeless guy on a bench. The platform across from me, however, was full of people who seemed equally perplexed and amazed at the sight across the way: me... a poor man's Cinderella... but dirtier and more forlorn. So, I waited on the bench next to the homeless guy; we made quite a pair. He covered himself with a bag and fell asleep, and I tried to look as blasé as possible, as if wearing one shoe had been a carefully calculated fashion decision with which I was entirely comfortable. I sent a few text messages to alert some friends about my loss of shoe. One response read: “Guess you didn’t really need that one.” Guess not.

A few trains came and went, with passengers eyeing me, some in disgust, some in pure awe. I considered trying to jump into the tracks, either to retrieve the shoe or to put myself out of this misery; but I decided that the mortification of losing a shoe and electrocuting myself would be simply too much for one day. Still, no assistance came, so I strategically positioned myself at the end of the platform so that I could speak to the conductor of the next incoming train. As he pulled up, he seemed unsurprised to see me standing there. I knocked on the window sheepishly.

“My shoe fell in the tracks.”

“Yeah, I heard about you,” he replied. “They’re sending someone.”

Oh good. The word had spread.

I returned to my perch next to my homeless friend. As the next few trains passed, I noticed the conductors watching out for me with that unmistakable look of amused disdain. Finally, one of them got out and yelled, “The girl who lost the shoe?”

Yes, that’s me. How could you tell?

Finally, I spied two RER workers slowly approaching me from the opposite end of the platform. They were in no rush, nor were they amused by the havoc I had caused. They looked at me. They looked at my shoe on the tracks. They left. A few minutes later, they came back with a broom to fish the shoe out. No luck. One went to get another broom. His partner stayed, and I decided it was a good time to make awkward conversation.

“Does this happen often?” I asked.

“No.”

Then she told me to go sit down. I obeyed. Then she conceded, “Well sometimes people lose phones. But not shoes.”

Finally her counterpart came back and embarked upon an elaborate shoe rescue endeavor. While the woman watched for oncoming trains, he used the two brooms in a “chopstick-like” manner and eventually succeeded in lifting my shoe from the tracks below. It was frightened, but intact.

“Thank you so much. I’m so sorry about this,” I giggled, immediately realizing that I shouldn’t be giggling. He sort of smiled. She didn’t. They left.

I looked around the platform for someone to share in my joy—or at least in the absurdity of my shame—but, strangely, no one wanted to associate with me, not even my homeless guy. The next train came and I hopped on, both my foot and my ego thoroughly soiled. As the train pulled away I wondered, “How would a cool French girl have handled that situation?” It’s pretty clear. A cool French girl would never have been in that situation because (1) she would not be a complete spazz, and (2) she would have been wearing cool French boots, which are what I intend to wear for the remainder of my time in Paris.

Big League Loss

From big league baseball player James Arthuer Scott’s blog site blog site:

“… Elliott's party was fun. Great food. Many officials from the league and their families. I was the only player at first, which made Vanessa the only player's wife in attendance at first. There was dancing. So we danced a bit. I looked down at Vanessa's watch and it was 9:30. We had to leave to make it to Mrs. Delaney's party across town. Since Vanessa danced without her shoes, we spent twenty minutes looking for them. We found one. … The second shoe was lost, so we left, hopped into the Maceo Mobile, and sped toward a shoe store. Vanessa hopped out, bought a pair of pumps, and dove back in. We made it to Mrs. Delaney's by 10:45.

Needless to say, Mrs. Delaney was slightly miffed that we were three hours and fifteen minutes tardy for her party. I explained about the shoe… She nodded and led us into her grand chalet. Beautiful place. Around midnight, I started to list a bit. The wall held me up, but my tiredness remained. I grabbed Vanessa and made mention of Maceo turning into a lizard and his limo transforming back into a Dodge Dart if we didn't leave immediately. She was sympathetic, but wanted to head back to Elliott's to find her shoe. We bid Mrs. Delaney and other guests an adieu, told her her party was the best New York had to offer, and made a beeline for the car.

Back inside Elliott's, the party was jamming. It was about 12:40 or so. Vanessa searched for her shoe. Somehow, Vanessa and I found ourselves dancing again. The D.J. was really good. But for the record, I do not wish that I had Jesse's girl. I have a woman like that. Unfortunately, Vanessa lost one of her new shoes. I swear, Elliott's place is like a washing machine/dryer combo that takes your pairs of socks and only returns one. At least Vanessa was back to owning a pair of shoes, one of which was in Maceo's possession in the limo.

Shoe Swiper!

A funny account from ny Times Diaries :

… It happened while I was walking Celishia, my 8-year-old, to school. We were crossing Broadway at 79th Street and when we were in the middle of the road the traffic light changed. We began to hurry and were about to step up on the curb when one of my shoes slipped off. I turned back to retrieve it; what I saw instead was my gray pump being brushed uptown by one of those tanklike street-cleaning trucks with big brushes. I shouted. The driver didn't hear me. I waved. He didn't see me, either - me with one stockinged foot on the cold, cold sidewalk watching my shoe being slurped up into the insatiable appetite of those big brushes.

These were the thoughts that rushed through my mind at that moment: Can I get to P.S. 87 (78th Street near Amsterdam Avenue) by hopping? (No). Are the sidewalks too cold to try to walk there? (Yes). Are shoe stores open at 8 A.M.? (No). Then I noticed that the truck was temporarily blocked by an illegally parked car. I hopped over to shoe swiper and knocked on the lower edge of a fender. I shouted over the squishing noise of the big brushes, ''You've got my shoe!'' The driver opened his window. ''What?'' he wanted to know. ''You've got my shoe,'' I repeated. ''C'mon,'' he shouted. ''Where?'' ''There!'' I said, pointing to the captured pump. ''And here,'' I added, with a wave of my shoeless foot. He shook his head, pulled a magic lever and - sploosh! - down came my shoe, along with a pile of glop. The truck continued on its way. Celishia picked up the shoe. The men at the 79th Street Liquor store waved us in, washed and dried the shoe and lined it with paper towels. Then, Cinderella style, it was slipped back onto my foot. All this before 8:30 A.M. I wondered what else the day could possibly hold and was ready to take on whatever came my way. New York, New York, you certainly do keep us on our toes.

Fit for a Loss

“Kinja” discovered this first-hand account by Austin, Texas photographer Jessica Schmale in her blog site.

“November 11, 2008

I mean do things like this actually happen to real life people?

You have to read what I did yesterday...

You wouldn't believe how proud I was to rise before the five o'clock hour yesterday morning (yes you read that right). I promised Erin that I would meet her for a 5:30a.m. Body Pump class at our YMCA. I'm such a dork. I was so afraid of sleeping in and so sickened by the idea of waking up any earlier than I HAD TO that I went ahead and packed my bag and slept in my workout clothes to lessen the amount of steps before getting out the door at that early hour.

(…) In any case, after class we made it over to the Children's Home (my place of work) locker room to shower and change. It was almost 7:30, when I needed to be at the office, so I gathered up my stuff and took out my shoes so I could treck on over to the office when it happened...

Something one would only dream about. Something you see in movies. Something I would make fun of someone else for. I found not two, but one shoe in my bag!

I panicked at first. What would I do with a whole day of work and only one shoe? You better believe I walked out in the cold, wet morning air to tear my car to bits looking for the other flat copper/gold beauty with ruffles on the toes only to find... NOTHING.

What would I do? I had zero alternatives unless I wanted to wear my glowing white Asics with my brown dress pants all day. My house is too far to drive home, search my room and my closet, and make it back in time for work. I was out of ideas. So... Yesterday was a one-shoe day.

I'm pretty sure that's against dress code policy here. I did my best to stay hidden; however, more than once I literally backed my chair up and searched under my desk for my lost shoe. So now I have a few problems. I only have one shoe, I may be a tad dramatic and apparently I have short-term memory loss. Seriously?

Too drunk to care

Account of drunk woman coming out of office party, and leaving behind one shoe on the pavement!

“… another co-worker who came out to smoke, took pity on me and grabbed my hand, walking me to the major avenue a block away, hailed me a cab and made sure I had money.

As I was entering the cab I was so thankful that I was going to be home soon that as my shoe slipped off my foot onto the curb, as I pulled my foot from the ground to the inside of the cab, I did not care. I actually remember sitting there laughing and pointing at it.

I sat in the cab wearing only one shoe wiggling my toes, wondering why my foot was so frosty. Oh, that poor little foot.

Wearing only one high heel really is the most pathetic thing in the world, but also one of the funniest. Especially when said foot is clad in fishnets.

I walked from the cab into my brightly lit building lobby while a neighbor sat talking on her cell phone in the vestibule. She watched me limp in as I walked past the mailboxes to barricade my drunk-assed self in the elevator…”

To see ONE SHOE SCENES in TV shows and Movies, click here. 1