I was sitting on my veranda one Sunday afternoon, enjoying the breeze when I noticed a well dressed young lady.
My guess was that she had been to church.  She had on a flowing blue dress with silver accessories. But what caught my eyes were her silver shoes. They  were high and judging from the way she was walking with her knees bent, they were tight and uncomfortable.  This reminded me of my own experience with tight shoes.

This article makes me remember the days when I myself couldn’t resist a high heel.  The only difference was that I was obsessed with high heels and tight shoes.  And when the shoes were too tight I would stretch them by hanging them up with wet sand or putting a drink bottle in them.  When I started working I took them to Foreman’s Repair Shop or William Fogarty’s Store to have them stretched….I am thankful that my obsession with heels has now been healed! Are you?

The sun was so hot and I didn’t know where she was coming from and how far she was going. It took me back some years ago when I never liked to refuse the gift of a shoe.  I remember well the pair of black suede shoes my aunt Cloytild had bought me.  I was about eleven or twelve years old.  It fitted neatly, and that was just the look I admired. Even when they were too tight and would hurt me, I took all the pain because I loved them.
As I grew older I gravitated towards more pain, and I wore the latest styles whether pointed tips, platforms, toeless, backless straps, Clarkes and all.  As I started to work, I remember shopping at Shu-all in the days when they had balance parcel, (i.e., paying a little bit every month while the shoes remain at the store and when the whole amount was paid the store keeper delivered the shoes).
I would always be in the fashion, with shoes matching my bag, I felt so good. And I couldn’t wait for the new stocks to come in.  I also had a weakness for colour.  But for the pain; when it was not my toes it was my heels; but I endured the pain because I loved the shoes. 
But have you noticed how high the heels have gone?  I am looking at one that is six inches high, and I am also reading an article in the Washington Post dated August 31, 2010, which invited heelers to consider a recent study on the physical costs of high heels.  The research findings were first published in the July 2010 issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology.
This article makes me remember the days when I myself couldn’t resist a high heel.  The only difference was that I was obsessed with high heels and tight shoes.  And when the shoes were too tight I would stretch them by hanging them up with wet sand or putting a drink bottle in them.  When I started working I took them to Foreman’s Repair Shop or William Fogarty’s Store to have them stretched.
The article I referred to appeared under the heading “Down-to-earth research shows the impact of high heels on female legs”.  It posited that when compared with flats, high heels when worn regularly can lead to shortened calf-muscle fibers and thicker, stiffer Achilles’ tendons.
According to physiology professor Marco Narici and his colleagues at Britain’s Manchester Metropolitan University, and at the University of Vienna, this may be the reason why some women felt tightness in their calves when they kicked off their heels. 
The researchers selected 11 from a group of 80 volunteers ages 20 to 50 who had worn two-inch or higher heels five times a week for at least two years, and who felt discomfort in their calves after taking off the shoes.  They did not assess physical activity level or heel thickness.
A   control group included nine women of comparable age, height and mass who wore flats regularly.
“With magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the researchers noted that those in both groups had calf muscles of similar size but different shapes.  Assuming this was due to fiber lengths, the researchers used ultrasound to confirm their hypothesis: Individual muscle fibers shortened with high-heel wear. 
They then measured how muscles contracted and performed using a dynamometer, a device that measures force, torque, power and velocity.  Shortened fibers would suggest a high-heel wearer’s calf muscles would produce less force than a flat-shoe wearer, but muscles performed similarly in both groups.”
The article declared that the researchers could not understand why, being curious, they used MRI and saw that the Achilles’ tendon compensated for muscle fiber length.  The tendon was significantly thicker and stiffer in high-heel wearers.
Narici felt that if women insisted on wearing heels, shortened fibers and thick, stiff tendons will be inevitable, and suspected that these adaptations may have an impact on athletic performance, though they did not appear to hinder everyday movements.  “You can’t run at the same level as a person who doesn’t wear high heels,” he said. “If the tendon becomes stiffer and the muscle fibers become shorter, the ability to store and release elastic energy is problematic.”
However, the research in this area is futuristic.  The writer concluded that for now high-heel wearers should stretch their calves at least twice a day. “Women enjoy wearing high heels, they look good. They feel good…we don’t want to stop them from wearing high heels.”
We have all desired something that hurt us and are attracted to something even when it hurts or destroys us; just because we like it.
I was amused when my very good friend said to me, “look at my toes, they are all stubbed and deformed by corns, just because I loved to wear tight shoes”.  I also heard a well-known American talk show host saying that her foot was size 12 but she always wore size 10 ½ because she  preferred the cute look of the smaller sized shoes. 
And what about my other good friend who could not wait to get home to back up against the shut door and slip out off the high heels with a sigh of relief.  Did they all have an obsession?
Ever since I was a child I just couldn’t resist tight shoes.  I never said they were tight because   my aunt would take them back to the store.  But why did I do that anyway; and bore such pain? How silly it all seems now!  I guess I was addicted to tight and high heeled shoes. 
Today I sit and reflect on the past, I do not have a choice, I can scarcely wear those shoes again.  My feet are not what they should be.  They have taken on different shapes, and my calves are weak.  Those shoes burnt my feet; squeezed and  disfigured my toes, my heels and the sides of my feet; blistered the back of my heels, and strained my back –  but I did my thing. I wore the heels I loved so much.
I am thankful that my obsession with heels has now been healed! Are you?