Finally, After about 50 Years, My Own Converse All-Star Low-Cuts

Converse has been making one form of tennis shoe or another since 1908 and the Chuck Taylor All-Star since 1923, but it took me until today to get my first pair. They're white low cuts, the kinds the basketball players wore when I was a kid in the late 1950s and early 1960s, sort of the Air Jordans of the day.

My brother had a pair, even though we were too poor to afford these expensive $10 shoes, because he was on the high school varsity and the school furnished shoes (hell, in those days, the school furnished everything down to jocks and muscle bruise balm). I didn't make the team and had to wear Keds. The humiliation was great.

I was walking at the mall this morning (it was 17 cold ones and I wasn't going to walk outside) and passed a display of the new colorful low-cuts. I've seen a lot of these displays, but they never seemed to have the one I wanted: the white one. There were high tops and black and pink and orange shoes, but no white, low-cuts.

Today, there they sat: the splendid Chuck Taylor Converse All-Star low-cut, antique in style and feel, but brand new and as handsome as ever. I bought them. First time I've ever bought shoes in a mall and a rare retail purchase of any kind. They cost $48 and I will not complain for a second. That's less than $1 a year for these shoes I have so wanted for so long.

They're resting under my bed at this moment, awaiting tomorrow's walk. It will be glorious. I might even try a dunk with my new shoes and my new knee.