The High Heeled Ruminations Of Melrose Plant

[mlroseplant]

Hello folks, I have returned from my annual visit to Vietnam, and have returned to a heeling life. In years past when I have been away from heels for 3 weeks, there has been a bit of a re-learning curve to get used to walking in heels again. This year, I didn't have much of a problem with the skill itself, but I did notice a real lack of endurance that I haven't in years past. This may be a result of several factors, but one thing's for sure--my feet sure are tired. Time to get serious again!

[HappyinHeels]

mlroseplant,

Actually I think most of your learning curve is coming back to an Iowa winter from the heat of Vietnam. Don't forget the traction pads for your heels   HappyinHeels

[Steve63130]

Mlroseplant,

Glad you returned safely. Get back into heeling slowly. You don't want to damage your feet or you could be in serious trouble. Enjoy the journey.

And thanks for making an effort to keep posting while you were gone!

Steve

[Logjam]

To briefly echo the others - welcome back, glad travels were safe!

Logjam

[mlroseplant]

I received an unsolicited compliment today on my footwear.  I was shopping at my local Walmart, which, by the way, is the only place I've ever taken a tumble in heels. It was due to ice stuck to the bottoms of my shoes against the slick tile floor. No worries about that today, however. 

I was searching for a box of nitrile gloves. My eldest son needed them for some computer building he's been working on, and I use them occasionally for automotive work. One of us wants to protect the equipment, and one of us wants to protect his hands from nasty chemicals. While I was looking through the paltry selection available, a woman approached me and said, "I just LOVE your heels!" Deep in the thought that just a couple years ago, Walmart had a much better variety of nitrile gloves, I probably did not react as warmly as I normally would have, but I smiled and said, "Oh well thank you!" She said again, "I just love the heels! I can't wear heels any more."  

That is all. I almost feel like I'm truly accepted sometimes. I was wearing my 5 year old but well cared for Nine West "Sizzle" oxfords, with a 4 3/4 inch thin block heel with slim but not skinny jeans and a black trench coat. 

[jeremy1986]

That's great @mlroseplant!   Pic of the Sizzles?

[mlroseplant]

6 hours ago, jeremy1986 said:

That's great @mlroseplant!   Pic of the Sizzles?

I just KNEW you we're going to ask that, but I posted anyway without pics, mainly because I don't have any. So, I consulted Uncle Google for a stock photo. 

[jeremy1986]

7 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

I just KNEW you we're going to ask that, but I posted anyway without pics, mainly because I don't have any. So, I consulted Uncle Google for a stock photo. 

Thanks - knew I could count on you  

 

[CAT]

I have a pair of those, they are super comfortable!

 

[pebblesf]

Positive comments are great, although we seem taken by surprise, at least I do...I was down in Naples, helping out with my Mom when my sister's dryer gave out.  I wanted to get the dryer fixed for her before leaving for home so rushed to an appliance store in an attempt to buy the parts I thought would be needed.  It turns out the store was closed due to a leaky roof, but they had a male representative just hanging around in front of the store to answer questions and direct you to another location. 

I was wearing my black RL boots with 4" stiletto heels, along with my usual faded levis 511s, the heels were somewhat covered, but obvious to anyone who was looking.  I was talking with this fellow about finding the needed parts, he seemed to want to make conversation and was very pleasant.  Fortunately, I had forgotten that I was wearing my boots, so was at ease and chatted with this fellow for at least five minutes about a few topics. 

I remembered I was wearing my boots when I climbed back into the rental car, then realized this fellow must surely have noticed by boots/heels.  I can't help but wonder if he was intrigued by my boots, just didn't want to say anything....Oh well, I will take this brief interaction a compliment, which felt great....

[jeremy1986]

Great story, @pebblesf, just shows how comfortable you are out and about in your 4" stilettos! 

and agreed - in a case like this, a non-mention is most certainly a great compliment! 

 

[mlroseplant]

On 3/19/2018 at 4:13 PM, CAT said:

I have a pair of those, they are super comfortable!

 

They sure are! I've had mine reheeled twice, and they are one of my favorite pairs! They are also among my very first pairs of truly "high" heels, just a little over 5 years ago. I like to wear them with men's suits or with jeans.

[Pierre1961]

I love that pair of Oxford. I haven't been able  to find such a pair yet ,with a round toe cap and a nice  heel. These should be perfect for everyday,traveling.....

[mlroseplant]

On 3/21/2018 at 1:38 AM, Pierre1961 said:

I love that pair of Oxford. I haven't been able  to find such a pair yet ,with a round toe cap and a nice  heel. These should be perfect for everyday,traveling.....

Oxfords were sort of what got me to get into heeling, because they seemed to me to be very masculine, and at first that was very important to me and my self confidence. Nowadays, I'm not really concerned about whether I look masculine or not, but I still like oxfords. I have, if I'm thinking correctly, 5 pairs. I will have to post a picture at some later time. I would probably own more, but I think I've run into the same problem as you--it's difficult to find oxfords with a traditional round-toe, but yet with a decently high heel. If I were interested in wearing a lower heel (3 inches or less), I'd have plenty of oxfords to choose from, and some nice quality ones. Anything higher than 4 inch, it seems you always find a "fetishy" aspect to them, rather than super dressy. I'm always searching for a pair of oxfords with a tall heel, but with styling more conservative. More about this later.

[Pierre1961]

Thank you @mlroseplant

i agree totally. As I am ( still?) in the research of a masculine look,Oxford shoes are for me,the only possible shoes publicly. 

I of course have a lot of court shoes ( 6" and more )for home. 

So far the best I have been able to find are : 

one pair with a 14,5 cm from Peter Chu. Ok for one hour walk 

one pair from Extreme high heel in Spain. 15.5 cm. The feeling is great but not as easy on a street pavement 

deams and real life could be different ! 

 

[HappyinHeels]

mlroseplant,

Nice you got good comments on your heels at Walmart whilst on the hunt for good gloves. I largely avoid Walmart but do occasionally go to Sam's Club where we have been members for a long time. When we lived out West we belonged to "Price Club" based in San Diego which I understand got absorbed by Costco based in Kirkland, WA.

We have a chain of stores here in Wisconsin called "Fleet Farm" and "Farm and Fleet" started by two brothers and both cater to the rural customers. Anything commonly used in the countryside is often there including lots of gloves. They have the best animal feed selection, decent tools, and definitely the best fencing selection I've seen anytime recently. I would think a Tractor Supply Store may also have what you are looking for but their stores are not common. HappyinHeels

[tina]

On 3/19/2018 at 9:39 AM, mlroseplant said:

I just KNEW you we're going to ask that, but I posted anyway without pics, mainly because I don't have any. So, I consulted Uncle Google for a stock photo. 

they are just lovely. and a great story hun.

[bluejay]

2 hours ago, HappyinHeels said:

mlroseplant,

Nice you got good comments on your heels at Walmart whilst on the hunt for good gloves. I largely avoid Walmart but do occasionally go to Sam's Club where we have been members for a long time. When we lived out West we belonged to "Price Club" based in San Diego which I understand got absorbed by Costco based in Kirkland, WA.

We have a chain of stores here in Wisconsin called "Fleet Farm" and "Farm and Fleet" started by two brothers and both cater to the rural customers. Anything commonly used in the countryside is often there including lots of gloves. They have the best animal feed selection, decent tools, and definitely the best fencing selection I've seen anytime recently. I would think a Tractor Supply Store may also have what you are looking for but their stores are not common. HappyinHeels

Tractor Supply is very common in my area, as there are 4 stores within 25 miles of me. I shop there a lot but they don't carry nitrile gloves, just work gloves, which are priced higher than at Walmart, where I get mine. To get nitrile gloves, I have to go to a specialty store that sells fertilizers, pesticides and spray equipment, or order them from A.M.Leonard.com which is located in, Ohio.

There are no Fleet Farm or Farm and Fleet stores, in my area. In fact, I've never heard of them.

BTW, I'm in heels in Walmart too and yes I do get compliments! Both from clerks and other customers.

Happy Heeling,

bluejay

[mlroseplant]

I see that it has been over 5 months since my last post. How does one re-enter the world of HHP gracefully? Are some words of explanation necessary? Where have I been? What made me stop posting?

The truth is, I don’t have an explanation, other than that I simply didn’t feel like posting for a while. But now I have a story that I feel is worth sharing, so I’m jumping back in. I hope you enjoy it.

Recently, I visited Chicago over a long weekend with my family and three other families. The trip almost didn’t happen due to lack of planning, but that’s a whole ‘nuther story in itself. When it became obvious that it was in fact going to happen, I had a big decision to make that most guys don’t have to make: Was I going to wear heels or not? If so, would I wear them the whole time, or would I choose to wear flat shoes to do the touristy stuff, changing into heels only for dinner and the like? Further complicating my decision was the fact that my wife would definitely prefer that I not wear heels, and the other two normally heel-wearing women on the trip, one of whom is my close friend and shoe buddy, told me right off before the fact that they were not even going to attempt to wear heels except for pictures and maybe dinner.

From the outset, I knew I wasn’t going to carry heels in a bag for pictures or dinner. I mean, why bother with that, when the attraction was actually getting to walk in them? Most women find this concept to be quite unfathomable, but hey, that’s sort of where I’m at in life. I haven’t practiced walking for literally thousands of miles in heels in order to carry them in a bag. So I made my decision. I would wear heels for the entire trip, if my feet would let me. But which heels? In the middle of August, sandals seemed the natural choice. Unfortunately, I’ve had a number of my sandals become unwearable this summer for various reasons, due to catastrophic failure. Sandals that had been my longtime friends suddenly decided to bite into my toes on a short, one mile walk. In the end, I wound up taking six pairs of heels with me, including one pair of oxfords that I knew I could count on if all else failed. Plus one pair of tennis shoes (trainers), just in case.

In the end, I showed the girls how it’s done. Not only did I stick to my heels the entire time (according to my phone, 18,000 steps and 6+ miles on one day), but I did so without any negative effects whatsoever. No blisters, no aching feet, no cramped calves. No one was more surprised than me about that. I guess all that training paid off in the end. Admittedly, it wasn’t like going to Disney World or something like this, but we did cover a fair amount of ground. It was a blast!

In non-shoe news, my wife had an excellent time, and is already planning our next mini-vacation, although she did carefully crop my feet out of every picture before posting anything on Facebook. The one photo I have to show you was taken by someone else. It shows my BCBGirls Bonny wooden platform mules, which look like they’d be the absolute worst thing you could wear for walking a long way, but are surprisingly comfortable. I’d just had them reheeled before the trip, and they didn’t disappoint. I also wore some wedges and some Michael Kors stiletto sandals for part of the time, but 80% of the trip was spent in the BCBG mules.

I would do some things differently next time, but isn’t that usually true of anything?

[Steve63130]

Way to go, Mr. Plant! And welcome back to HHP. Some of us have noticed your absence and missed you. It's always good to read your posts. You're a good role model.

Glad you had a good time and got to wear heels most of it. I'm sure you got lots of looks, but most people are polite and don't say anything.

Steve

[SF]

Mlroseplant....   All I can say is that you look great in your heels....  The guy with no shirt on, not so much.  ha ha

Welcome back to the site.....    Adios....   sf

[Mr. X]

Welcome back

[HappyinHeels]

mlroseplant,

I guess I was unaware of the amount since your last posting since I actually visited you in Iowa in May coming back from San Francisco. Glad to see you made a trip to Chicago, the Willis Tower is a mere 62 miles/100 km from our driveway. You definitely went big and bold on your footwear. I have worn all types of heels in both downtown Chicago and certain areas on the Northside. It does seem some planning is needed for almost any length of trip especially when involving more than two people.  Thanks for coming out of your posting slumber. I'll be paying a visit to some good friends in Cedar Rapids this weekend and shall think of you then. HappyinHeels 

[mlroseplant]

And now, I will do some actual rumination. That is the title of this thread, after all.

I have decided that I might be a freak of nature. Recently, I have been thinking about how my body reacts to being in heels for long periods of time, and have decided that, in general, it reacts pretty well. To be fair, I do not have the opportunity to wear high heels all day, every day, as my profession won't allow it, but on those occasions where I have worn heels exclusively for a week or so, I seem to come out the other end in pretty good shape, and it's only getting better as the years go by.

This seems to be the opposite experience of women heel wearers I know. Even my best shoe buddy, a 43-year-old daily heel wearer, has already contemplated at what age she might have to give up wearing heels except for special occasions. Right now, she would not even consider wearing flats to work, but her work doesn't involve much standing or walking. And yet, even she didn't even consider wearing heels as her main footwear on our recent trip to Chicago (see directly above, no we did not go by ourselves), despite 25+ years of almost daily heeling experience. Whereas I, with a mere 6 years part-time experience, wore substantial heels the entire time with no deleterious effect, and I really could have done much more. How can this be?

It may be that my body is simply more adaptable to physical stressors than the average. This is probably true, though I don't feel I am anything beyond the range of "normal." It may be that I'm at the upper end of the range, however. Whenever it becomes necessary to do unusually hard physical labor at work or at home, it seems I usually feel better (or at least not as bad) the following day than do many others. However, I think the secret lies in my approach to heeling compared to all but the tiniest fraction of the heel-wearing population. I have always approached heeling largely as an athletic challenge. For sure, I also like the way they look, but it's always been the women who can walk in heels as if they were the easiest thing in the world who have impressed me, and from a young age I always wondered if I could do the same thing.

When I started heeling publicly, my heels were all very androgynous, and not too high. After gaining enough confidence to venture out, I put some miles on those 3 inch heels. Hundreds of miles. I developed an acid test for new shoes: If I couldn't walk two miles in them in reasonable comfort, they were gone. I got rid of some shoes I really, really liked because of this. Gradually, over 6 years, my heels have gotten higher, but my standards have not gotten lower. I reject a lot of shoes still, and it is always disappointing.

Not that I haven't had pain from wearing heels, but it has pretty much been all my fault every time, especially in the beginning. I remember in particular buying my first pair of boots, and wearing them right out of the store and into a shopping mall where I had several errands to run. The brand new boots were much higher/steeper than what I was used to at the time, my errands took longer than I anticipated, and I thought I was going to DIE before I got back to the car. My feet hurt so much that I thought I had done some permanent damage. I hung my head in despair and defeat, thinking, "OK, this is why women bitch about wearing heels." Now I realize that this experience was totally due to lack of training/preparedness. An analogy would be trying to run a half marathon when the most you had ever run in your life was a 5K. Luckily, I didn't get too discouraged, and continued toward my heeling goals within a day or two. Today, that same excursion in those same boots would be entirely forgettable and ordinary (and pain free!).

I have a few nieces who claim they want to be able to wear heels like me, but none have been willing to do what I have done, so unfortunately I do not have any evidence, scientific or otherwise, to back up my ideas and assertions about how it is possible to live in heels in relative comfort. I have only my own experience to go by, and only a handful seem to believe me that I actually enjoy the feeling of wearing heels, even after the second mile.

 

[Shyheels]

I could compare what you describe to the very old fashioned bicycle saddles I use - Brooks of England, the same leather saddles they have been making for over 100 years. If someone who does not ride were to hop on my bike and go for a spin they would think the saddle was diabolical, and marvel that anybody could ride a bike with a saddle like that. Yet properly broken in those saddles are fabulously comfortable. I regularly put in 100+ mile days on my bike and never give the saddle a thought. 

[mlroseplant]

51 minutes ago, Shyheels said:

I could compare what you describe to the very old fashioned bicycle saddles I use - Brooks of England, the same leather saddles they have been making for over 100 years. If someone who does not ride were to hop on my bike and go for a spin they would think the saddle was diabolical, and marvel that anybody could ride a bike with a saddle like that. Yet properly broken in those saddles are fabulously comfortable. I regularly put in 100+ mile days on my bike and never give the saddle a thought. 

I used to have one of those! On an old lugged frame Gitane from the 60s or 70s. I agree with you whole-heartedly, except for the 100+ mile days. You may keep those! I tried to be a serious cyclist once, and I just don't love it enough.

[Shyheels]

I’ve never done any racing, just touring - long rides through the countryside and some very long solo expeditions in the far corners of the world. All up I’ve probably ridden 300,000 miles. I have been told though, by some, that I’m not a real cyclist because I don’t wear the right gear...

I love those old lugged frame bikes. 

Edited September 1, 2018 by Shyheels

[Cali]

mlroseplant you'll not alone; I feel better wearing heels than not wearing heels. You look at walking as an athletic event and your heels as the equipment you will use, so you find the best equipment for your event. Wear-ability  over looks.

Most people (even many member here) consider the style of the shoe and don't consider wear-ability of the shoe. Many don't plan wearing them for hours or walking very far in them. For some its only from the cab to the restaurant, for others the confines of their habitat. Looks over wear-ability.

Edited September 1, 2018 by Cali

[Shyheels]

Quite right. The heel and it’s height become the focus, and somewhere in all that the fact that it is a shoe or boot to be worn just like any other footwear, is lost.

[mlroseplant]

I participate in a semi-monthly jam on Saturday mornings. Finally, after more than a year, the host of these events saw fit not to crop my feet clear out of all the pictures posted on social media. I noticed that!

An aside that has nothing to do with shoes: Our usual lead guitarist was unable to attend this time, so that task fell to me. To tell the truth, I'm not much of a guitarist, but I did better than I had any right to do.