I was perusing some older stories this evening - as I often do. A comment by another reader at the end of a current story got me started looking at an older story I had not seen before, which in turn led me to going through an author’s previous works. As a coincidence, it was an author whose work I had read quite a lot of before, but I decided to go through some of her solo work I had not previously read. I tend to be attracted more to multi-part stories or serials rather than solo stories, and as such I had ignored her solo works for the most part, much to my loss.

But it was not the stories that made me want to post this - rather it was the comments regarding shoes at the end of one of the stories. The point being made by multiple readers had to do with the fact that as women they had many more shoes than as men - or for some, that they had more women’s shoes than men’s shoes.

It made me think about my own choices.

When I was young and everyone thought I was a boy, I made due with a pair of tennis shoes (or sneakers as we called them), usually two pairs of dress shoes (one black and one brown), hiking boots, winter boots for snow, and several pairs of cleats (sports shoes for those who don’t understand the reference) - namely soccer, baseball, and track spikes.

Later, I added in multiple pairs of shoes for my uniforms with the US Navy - black and white dress uniform shoes (two pairs of each), and several pairs of combat boots for my BDU’s (later MCCUU’s). As a naval officer serving in a joint Navy/Marine Corps unit, my uniforms were essentially the same as my marines, but with different insignia. I still kept running shoes and several pairs of civilian dress shoes as well.

But one thing that is definitely true, once I transitioned, my shoe inventory blossomed, lol. As my wife likes to say, my shoes must be having sex because the keep multiplying. I currently have, based on a count I made tonight, 92 pairs of shoes. Imelda Marcos ain’t got nothin’ on me, lol. Well, OK, she had more - but obviously I have a lot of shoes. This includes multiple pairs of boots - boots for shoveling snow, white dress boots, black dress boots, brown dress boots, tan dress boots, and several pairs of ankle boots. Plus four pairs of running shoes in different colors, three pairs of flip-flops in different colors, plus lots of pumps, slingbacks, dress sandals, wedge heels, flats, etc.

And yes, I wear them all. Some of them were purchased to go with one specific outfit, and may not go with anything else, but they all get worn. I may wear five different pairs of dress shoes to work in any given week, and some of them only get worn during spring or summer, others only in fall, and some only in winter. Plus whatever I wear outside of work each week.

My point here is that yes, as a woman I have more shoes, and clothes, than I did when I was pretending to be a man. I also have much more choice in how I dress, what I wear, and in which colors I wear.

So sue me if I indulge my like of clothing and shoes, lol. In the words of Helen Reddy, “I am woman, hear me roar.”