When I was a kid, we had a pair of school shoes and a pair of dress shoes. Our dress shoes were worn to church on Sunday mornings and we lined them up on Saturday evening to be polished. Later, when we were older, we got the job of polishing our own shoes. In the summer, in anticipation of new shoes for the following school year, we were allowed to wear our school shoes as river shoes, meaning we were allowed to get them wet. The large rocks that covered the bottom of the river near our place made it nearly impossible to wade barefoot. shoes protected our feet enough for us to stand in the river for short amounts of time. In the seventh grade, we got a pair of gym shoes, reserved for gym class and extra-curricular sports only. One year, I was allowed to get a pair of cowboy boots for my dress shoes. When I moved to Chicago for graduate school, a new pair of boots moved with me. From that point on, I mostly wore cowboy boots for dress and later as a pastor, I often wore boots as my everyday shoes as I dressed up to go to the office most days.

I remember a family camp when I was about 12 during which there was an optional backpack trip that involved two nights camping in the mountains. The leader of the hike stated that no one would be allowed to go on the hike unless they had boots. I made the hike in a pair of borrowed cowboy boots that were definitely less comfortable than my everyday tennis shoes.

Over the years, I have had several pairs of comfortable hiking boots and I currently own a very nice pair that keep my feet warm in the winter and protected when hiking in rough terrain.

When I entered my sixties, I found that cowboy boots made my feet hurt and I decided not to wear them every day. I continued to wear them on occasions when I wore suits, but these days I find them to be quite uncomfortable and have obtained other shoes to wear with my suits, though I don’t wear suits too often. Most days I wear a pear of comfortable walking shoes that look a bit like running shoes but have deeper tread, more like a hiking boot. When a pair becomes worn, they are demoted to rougher duty such as mowing the lawn or working at the farm and a new pair takes their place.

Not long ago, I ordered a pair of shoes from a source where I had obtained shoes that fit well in the past. They were a brand that I have previously worn. However, when the shoes arrived, they were too small. I returned them and ordered a larger size. When the second pair arrived and were too small, I was frustrated. I decided to order from another source and no sooner has I made that order than I found another pair that seemed attractive to me. I decided that I would get both pairs and keep the one that I liked the best. Somehow I ended up keeping both pairs and I wear one for Sundays and one for everyday, a bit like I used to do when I was a child. The church we now serve is very informal and though I do dress up a bit on Sundays, if I were to wear a suit and tie, I’d be the only one in the church wearing one, so I am quite a bit more casual than I used to be.

As a result, I have been feeling a bit guilty about the number of pairs of shoes I own. I clearly have more than a lot of other people, and perhaps more than I owned at any other point in my life. I don’t really need the number of pairs that I have. My dear wife, who is sensible and frugal, does not own as many pairs as I do. Whatever jokes others make about women and shoes simply don’t apply in our household.

However, there is an article in the New York Times that makes whatever obsession with shoes I’ve developed in my old age pale by comparison. The article is about the “secondhand trade in upmarket men’s wear.” I didn’t even know that there was a secondhand trade in upmarket men’s wear. I assumed that second hand clothing, available at rummage sales and thrift stores was simply a bargain way of obtaining clothing. The article tells about people who sell used clothing at parties, often given in their homes. One 32-year-old “has become the go-to for rare Chrome Hearts, recent-season Louis Vuitton statement pieces and phrased vintage dirtbag T-shirts, building a business that he says has annual revenue in the low seven figures.”

I’m guessing from the article, and from the reported annual revenues, “vintage dirtbag T-shirts,” are going somewhere considerably north of 50 cents, the price for which I used to get t-shirts at the church rummage sale. And the t-shirts I got were in much better shape than “vintage dirtbag.” Those only sold when the buck-a-bag sale was held during the last hour of the rummage sale.

I’m no expert on fashion. I didn’t even know that Chrome Hearts existed before reading the article. One pair of Chrome Hearts was described as “heavyweight black leather cargo pants with exaggerated pockets and built-to-last hardware.” Those sound like they might make a good pair of work pants, though leather can be a bit uncomfortable, especially when it is hot outside. However, these Chrome Hearts pants were listed for sale at $20,000.

I may be feeling guilty for the amount of money I spent on shoes, but I didn’t invest the price of a car in a pair of pants. I still don’t know what a “Louis Vuitton statement piece” is, but I’m pretty sure I’m not interested in buying one. I’m not even going to be in the market for a new pair of shoes for a long time now.