High-Tops to High Heels: The Origin of My Heel & Height Obsession

I'm still searching through kitchen paint ideas, but I thought I'd kick off the week with a fun little story about yours truly and where my high heel obsession may have originated.  Funny enough, I hatched the idea for this post a couple weeks ago when my dad was in town for a visit because it's kind of his fault.  You'll have to read through the rest to understand :)  This ones for you dad!  Hope everyone else is game, here we go!

Now, I know you see more of my hammers/DIY-ing side here on the blog, but outside of that stuff I am in my high heels everyday just as it says in my blog header.... total truth, you can ask anyone.  Anything from dates with my hubby, long work days, bike riding, factory visits/meetings, or even trekking through Europe's cobblestone streets- I'm well heeled at all times!

I may head in and out of work in winter boots or flats but I am rarely seen without my heels at the office or out doing social stuff with friends on the weekends.  If I am seen without my extra height, I often hear things like...

"It's so weird seeing you without your heels," 

or 

"You're so short without you tall heels on," 

And the funny thing is that I agree!  I'm right around five feet tall and I'm not used to me without an extra 3-5 inches of height (did you notice I can't even just flat out say I'm five feet tall?).   Yes, I admit it's weird, but it's just a weird-uniquely-me thing the way I see it :)  On the flip side, when I do have my heels on the other most common question I hear is...

"How do you walk in those?" 

And that is easy to respond to because I walk in my big ol' heels pretty easily because I am used to it and here's where we circle back to my dad's whole role in this...  and yea that sounds like an odd segway but it's not, promise, keep following!

As a kid, I was always the shortest in my class, from pre-school all the way through middle school.  Then for the most part I was still one of the shortest through high school.  For reference, here's a visual from my pre-school Spring Program in 1989.

Note- I am a whole head shorter than all of the other 5 year olds, the ducky head cut-out highlights that really well right?

For what I lacked in height, I made up for with courage in the form of doing things that the tall kids were afraid to do.  And wouldn't ya know it, my older sister of all people was one of those tall kids that was afraid of a whole-lotta things.  Included among those things was amusement park rides and I mean everything outside of your basic sit on you buns carousel ride.  I on the other hand, was not!  Yes, I wanted to go on all of the tallest, fastest, and scariest of roller-coasters anytime we went to an amusement park back then, the only problem with that was the standard 48" height requirement for those kind of rides-  a big problem for a peanut like me.   

Now, the average height of a six year old girl is 46" and at age eight it is around 50", however at eight years old I was barely reaching 46" tall.   So, what did my dad do for his little Peanut?  You bet'cher buns he didn't tell me "Nope, you can't do that, you are too small," and he certainly didn't want me to endure the disappointment of such height discrimination.  Instead, my dad did what every dad shouldn't should do...

He took me to Payless to find that tallest LA Gear high-top tennis shoes available, bought them, then balled up thick socks, stuffed them into the heel of my shoe and BAM!  I was just over 48" tall at last!  Bring on the big scary roller coasters!!!!

So there you have it-  

I traversed many of the nation's finest amusement parks falsely representing my height using high-tops and a couple big ol' wads of socks thus becoming my first version of high heels and experiencing the power that a young lady in tall shoes could have over society.

For that, I thank you dad.... Who knew?!

Photo of my dad and I, still a Peanut really without my heels on :)

*** DISCLAIMER: We do not recommend or condone the faux representation of height in small children for the purpose of participating in amusement park rides as it could result in harm, death, or dismemberment.  Boy, parenting must have been easier in the 80's???  Hmmmm... thank goodness nothing happened to me dad!!!  ****