St. Nicholas Day Farm Contest!

Post by **The Steward** » 16 years ago

Tomorrow is St. Nicholas Day! Happy St. Nicholas Day to anyone who celebrates it!

To those who don't know what it is, you leave your shoes out (The Dutch clog shoes, is where it came from) and overnight they get filled with candy and little gifts. Who didn't love celebrating that as a kid?

I am giving away Canadian Farm. When you get it, you get to rename it! It is located very close to Toronto Racecourse.

For this contest, post about your favorite pair of shoes and why they are your favorite. The coolest shoe story wins!

It's open to anyone!

Ara Davies · Post by **Ara Davies** » 16 years ago

We used to do that in Iceland except it lasted for twelve days and trolls with names like Stiff Leg and Door Slammer and Food Bowl Licker would be the ones leaving candy and toys.

I swear.

<a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3lasveinar' target='_blank'>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3lasveinar</a>

Edit: That wasn't my entry into the contest, I'm just saying.

Edit again: Okay here is my entry. Actually there are two things. One is that I have a pair of flip flops with Jack Sparrow on them and they are awesome. The other is that I have a pair of socks with a picture of Judd Nelson from The Breakfast Club and I think they say "Eat My Shorts" on them but I can't find them right now so I'm not sure. The ultimate in awesome would be to wear my Judd Nelson socks with my Johnny Depp flip flops but unfortunately that does not work because socks don't work well with flip flops, silly! Unless they're those cool Japanese socks. They have those at Epcot but unfortunately they don't have Judd Nelson on them.

I'm glad trolls don't leave candy in my shoes anymore because they're kind of stinky.

Chris Briggs · Post by **Chris Briggs** » 16 years ago

My favorite pair of shoes was my first pair of Adidas Copa Mundial soccer cleats. I was 15 years old, and starting a new soccer season, and had to have these $100 pair of cleats. (**Note: to this day, the cleats STILL cost $100). I would not wear them to practice, only for games. When the first game rolled around that spring, I scored 4 goals that day! It had to be the shoes! I ended up having one of my best spring seasons ever that year, netting 32 goals in 12 games, and making the county all-star team!

To this day, I only buy 1 kind of soccer cleats to kick around a ball while coaching. The Adidas Copa Mundials.

Quote taken from soccer.com

New soccer technologies hit the field virtually every week and the latest soccer boot styles constantly push the limits of our imagination, yet Adidas' understated Copa, which first appeared more than 20 years ago, continues to thrive. Why? It's the Copa's craftsmanship, simple style and superior materials which adidas puts into every single pair. In 1982, when every legendary soccer player of that time stepped on the field, he was wearing adidas Copa Mundial cleats. In the more than two decades since, the Adidas Copa Mundial has remained the world's most popular soccer boot! A trusted and timeless classic, the Copa Mundial is made from the softest kangaroo leather available which provides for a comfort like no other. The Copa's upper is fully lined with an extended leather tongue. Additional leather supports extending from the heel provide for increased durability and stability. The outsole is constructed of dual-density Direct injected polyurethane with molded studs. Recommended for hard and dry natural fields.

Ara Davies · Post by **Ara Davies** » 16 years ago

Yes but do they have Johnny Depp on them? I rest my case.

John Slotmon · Post by **John Slotmon** » 16 years ago

I SO want a farm, but - sigh - I sadly don't have a super, duper shoe story. Thusly, I'll just tell the truth.

I went over the Ireland in 2003 - my third trip there - and, per usual, the Euros just have better shoes than do the Americans (not to mention better turf horses, but I digress.) My cousin was running the Dublin City Marathon, which I ran a little over a month ago, and I went to watch. After the race, we strolled down Grafton Street to a store that no longer exists, and I found this glorious pair of semi-casual, semi-work half sneaker/half dress shoe just sitting there awaiting my purchase. Suffice to say, I bought them about 13 seconds after trying them on, and they've been my favorite pair of shoes every since.

That is my favorite pair of shoes, adult version. If we can enter a favorite pair of children's shoes as well, I would have to mention my circa 1990 original Reebok Pumps.

Oh - as an aside - does anybody celebrate the epiphany in January where you leave your shoes out and the wise men drop some toys or whatever in the shoes while you're sleeping? Or am I weird?

Jolene Danner · Post by **Jolene Danner** » 16 years ago

I love keds. It must stem from my love of the movie dirty dancing. All that Baby wore in that movie was keds... So yeah i was then obsessed with Keds. I don't wear them as much anymore, but they are still one of my favorite shoe of all time. TV influences me to do lots of things.

Michelle Calderoni · Post by **Michelle Calderoni** » 16 years ago

My favorite shoes are my fuzzy grey boots that I bought when I was in Washington. I bought them at the Walmart in Ontario, Washington, which is the first scity when you cross the Oregon border. It was snowing and I was bored in Portland (My parents dragged em there to view colleges), so I decided to walk the Washington border so I could add another state to the list of three I've been to lol. So to commerorate the occassion I went to the Walmart there.

Now, for the shoes:

They are calve high boots with black soles and grey/white/black faux fur all over them. From far away it looks like I have clydesdale feet because they fur on them sways all over like a clydesdale. They are really really warm and they are super fuzzy on the inside as well as the outside. My friends at work used to tell me it looked like I skinned Chewbacca and made boots out of him they are that thickly covered with faux fur lol. I also have this amazing grey furry hat that I wear with my boots that makes me look like a dog sledder from Alaska. So sometimes I go outside in my snowboard attire, these, boots, and my hat and walk my friends' husky/german shepard mix and pretend im going to find my dog sled.

These boots are super awesome and the best shoes ever. I will post a picture when I get out of class.

Keith Maidlow · Post by **Keith Maidlow** » 16 years ago

Oh for great pair of shoes. My wife has about 50 pairs of shoes, some very interesting. She has a pair of high heels that are clear with bright red cherries inside each of the heels. Also a pair of terrific fur snow boots that it took me the entire Christmas season to find a few years ago. She has mauve cowboy boots, etc., etc.

My shoes are brown or black basic stuff or sneakers. I do have a pair of European walking shoes that are great for traveling.

My favorite shoes that are no longer worn are the ones worn by our filly some 25 years ago. One hangs over our door coming in from our garage, it's there for good luck.

Not exciting but it's all I got for you today.

Amy Alyssa · Post by **Amy Alyssa** » 16 years ago

<a href='http://active-sandals.stores.yahoo.net/wodasoredla.html' target='_blank'>http://active-sandals.stores.yahoo.net/ ... la.html</a>

Okay, so these shoes have quite the story. I got them from my old boss. I babysat her children, the cutest two little girls, up until she and her husband got a divorce. She then spent 4 years in alcohol rehab, and I think is living somewhere crazy now. I got these shoes from her when she was cleaning out her closet to move to her apartment. I also got a Prada purse and a Kate Spade bag, among other things. I love red shoes, probably because my grandmother used to say "little girls and hookers are the only people who wear red shoes." I am neither of these things.

I never really wore them until junior year of college, when I worked out at the barn a lot. I wore them to foal watch one night, and my very first equine baby made an appearance! The cutest buckskin baby named Diesel. We quickly fell in love.

These then became the "foal watch" shoes - I think I foaled out 5 or 6 mares successfully in these. Everyone thought they were lucky, which was fun.

Until I wore them one night... where we had a double forearm lock of a baby, spent 5 hours at the vet school, and I slept for 30 minutes before an econ final. I then stroked the babies face the next day as we put him down.

I wore the shoes for 2 more babies until the next big foaling disaster. One of our mares ruptured her large intestine during a foaling, causing another morning at the vet school, the euthanasia of the mare, and the immediate cesarean of the filly. For one week, we nursed the baby and watched her undergo surgery to repair her urethra. She couldn't make it and was euthanized.

Very sad.

I wore the shoes two more night, and one very healthy, very happy baby was born. Another was born and lived for 8 more months before being euthanized with Wobbler's Syndrome.

All in all, a lot of babies- a lot of tragedies, but a lot of wonderful babies born.

The moral? There are no lucky shoes - at least when it comes to horses. My red shoes had nothing to do with it... except keeping me on my feet after all those hours of foal watch.

Anne Conradt · Post by **Anne Conradt** » 16 years ago

Being cajun, we don't know about the St. Nicholas thing, cher, but my favorite pair of shoes was when I was mucking stalls for my grandpa, who trained sprinters. One of the jockeys, Randy Romero, left two pairs of shoes in the stall one day. Sooooo, I'm a 14-year old kid with kinda small feet, right, and I'm mucking stalls. Well, guess what? I mucked two left shoes right on out the stalls. I found the two right ones, and Randy had really small feet, so they fit me. But the really funny part was I was bow-legged so the fact that I had to wear two right shoes didn't bother me a bit. Randy thought it was funny, but my grandpa whipped my butt for losing those shoes. I never could figure out why he did that, because they were Randy's shoes, and HE didn't seem to mind. I still have those shoes, and oh by the way, they're autographed. Not by my grandpa, silly. By Randy. LOL I heard about that one for years after that.

If that don't beat all, my grandpa used to say.

Markey Rhodeo.

Kristen Lexcen · Post by **Kristen Lexcen** » 16 years ago

My favorite pair of shoes just so happen to be my baby shoes.

I had always asked my mom if there she had anything from when I was young and she said she had sold most of it when I was younger and wasn't sure where the rest of it was. After a couple years I just gave up asking. It wasn't until I went to college that I was in my parents basement searching for some boxes to pack stuff up and I came across a small shoe box. They were my baby shoes! I couldn't believe it I was so excited and thought they were adorable. They were white with 3 baby pink stripes on the side. In these stripes were 3 little white stars. They are so small and cute. They look like mini adidas shoes!

I still have them and I plan on giving them to my first girl! I never did tell my mom that I have them and I can't wait to see her face when she sees my kid with them.

Chuck Whittingham · Post by **Chuck Whittingham** » 16 years ago

My favorite pair of shoes are the ones I bought my daughter last year. Black and White Converse tennis shoes. Her mother was dead against them because she didnt like them. It only took one time out with me and my daughter and whammo she had them on. A year later the black and white tennis shoes with about 10,000 miles on them dont look very good, but we cant seem to get rid of them now. I hope her feet start growing so she doesnt wear them anymore but I am sure she will cut the ends off and still rock and roll with her and my favorite pair of shoes!!

Chuck

Laura Smith · Post by **Laura Smith** » 16 years ago

My favourite shoes...are not so much shoes as they are slippers.

Not ordinary slippers, either. They are basically huge, blue, down-filled pillows with foot-holes.

They're warm and comfy beyong belief in the winter.
Special to me for another reason, too -- My parents were hiking in the Northwest Territories the year they got married, and these slippers were one of the things my mother brought back from an Inuit village they'd spent some time in. (Also a couple of uber-warm REAL parkas which I adore.)
I have memories of my mom wearing them around the house when I was a little kid, but since then had forgotten about them.
When she lost her long battle with cancer in 2004, my dad and I were going about the difficult task of going through her things, and came across the slippers. Memories came flooding back and I've been treasuring them ever since. I don't care how ragged or worn-out they get -- they will always, always have a place under my bed, waiting for my cold feet in the morning.

Gary Cooper · Post by **Gary Cooper** » 16 years ago

When I was a kid... many years ago ! I was in the Boy Scouts in Miami where I grew up. We had an outing at the Miami Docks across from the ship yard where they park the Goodyear Blimp. It was a fishing outing and there was about 30 of us kids with only one Scout Master there. I at the time had Converse Hi Top Cans. ( Popular at the time! ). They were built like bricks and had laces ten times longer than what they needed to be. In every case... there is always one kid who can not be left alone in a group... well... we had one. He fell in the drink and it was about a 4ft drop into the water. I was 7 or 8 at the time and low and behold the guy whom was watching us could not swim nor could the kid who fell in the water swim well. I quickly took off my shoes and undid about 3 eyelets from each lace. Knoted them off and put one shoe to the moring kleet and the other into the drink for him to grab. Dove in and steadied the kid while he held on to the sneaker and lace tightly until he was pulled up. Happy ending ! Scout Master was never to be our Scout Master again... and I still talk with William the kid who fell in to this day... and I still have the sneaks in the closet in a box...never worn again. True story !

Lisa Strummer · Post by **Lisa Strummer** » 16 years ago

Hmmm my favorite pair of shoes...that is a tough question for me.

I had one pair of Manolo Blahnik's that have clear straps, so it looks like I don't have a shoe on, they're very very ultra hot. I've told this story before on another thread, but a man actually stopped me on the street and said they were the sexiest shoes he'd ever seen. They're also the pair of shoes that motivated my boyfriend back home to talk to me, he absolutely loves women's shoes, and I pull them out and look at them, when I'm missing him, it makes me feel closer to him, and I'm thankful I was impulsive and spent so much on them, b/c it's what got us together.
But, for those of you who read the thread about helping Ara shop on the forum, you know I was wishing for this pair: <a href='http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catal ... at14750743' target='_blank'>Suede Tie d'Orsay</a>. The other day, I got a call and guess what? My amazing, wonderful man got them for me!!! I was so happy I actually cried, not so much for the shoes, but b/c he thought of me and knew how happy they would make me. And b/c I miss him so much. So now I have two favorites that are special to me, besides the obvious shoe-lovliness, they both remind me of someone very dear to me, and with being so far away from him, it means the world to me. Being down here in Ocala has been tough, I get very lonesome, so having those shoes around reminds me of home, and makes me smile.
Kinda cheesy I know.