Memory, insights

Someone I went to high school with contacted me on FB. I don't remember them from HS and they said "The Priscilla I knew always wore Doc Martens." Now what's interesting about that is that while I would have loved to have a pair of Docs when I was in high school, I never did. I never had the money to buy a $150 pair of shoes!

When I was 18, about a year after I graduated, I was working at The Body Shop and the shoes I was wearing to work fell apart. I took my paycheck and went down to Journeys and bought a pair of 8-hole greasy leather docs on sale. It was immensely gratifying. I wore those things to work almost every day for the next 3 years, until THEY fell apart. I couldn't afford to replace them.  (Incidentally, the boots caused a big problem with my landlord. I was paying $200 a month to share a room with a friend in her mom's duplex- in 1995 dollars that was a ridiculous amount of money, I was honestly probably paying half the rent on that place. Her mom got super-pissed that I bought those boots, which still makes no sense to me because I was paying my rent and part of the bills and I was only at that place to sleep. Like I still do not understand why she got so angry that I bought myself a pair of shoes with my own money, AFTER paying her, except that she was crazy and entitled.)

It's interesting how people categorize other people, and see them in memory. Like, I am sure I was "the type" of person who would wear Docs, so in this person's memory, I always wore them.