Wearing Red Shoes

At a recent dinner party my dear friend Bob asked me,
"So why 'Wearing Red Shoes'? I mean, why is that your chosen blog name and now your Walk MS Team Name?"

And I thought, you know, I bet there are alot of people out there who don't know where Wearing Red Shoes comes from. Ok, maybe alot of you DO know, but it is a good story so here goes:

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Caroline.

When Little Caroline was 2 years old a movie came on television. Her parents debated whether or not this movie would be "appropriate" for a child her age. They worried certain parts might scare her. They did not know that Fate was stepping in that day bringing Little Caroline and her beloved 'The Wizard Of The Oz' together for the first time.

(And yes, she did refer to it with the extra 'The'...no one really knows why!)

She sat completely mezmerized until the credits began to roll and she asked to see it again. The asking continued for several days, until finally her parents went and bought Little Caroline her very own copy of 'The Wizard of the Oz'...on Betamax, no less!

For days...weeks...months, Little Caroline would watch her movie. Before long she could recite every line and sing every song. And then 3 year old Little Caroline decided her name would no longer suffice and she informed everyone she knew that her name was now Dorothy. But what mattered even more than the name were the Shoes. For YEARS to follow Little Caroline refused to wear any pair of shoes unless they were red. Red dress shoes, red sandals and flip flops, red sneakers...They all had to be RED.

Little Caroline dressed up as Dorothy for Halloween more times than anyone can count. She dressed up as Dorothy when it wasn't Halloween! When she was a little older her parents brought home a Cairn Terrier and they had of course named it Toto. Her favorite song of all time is still "Over the Rainbow". Her home is covered with Oz memorobilia. On her happiest days Oz has been there for her. On her darkest days it has been there too.
And when time or circumstance did not permit the watching of the actual movie, nothing made her feel closer to Oz than one of her pairs of red shoes.

My obsession with The Wizard Of Oz could fill the pages of blogs from here to eternity. The reasons I love its story, its myths and legends, its message and morals, its cast and music and so much more. But today we are talking about the shoes. There is something about a pair of red shoes that is truly magical.

Wearing Red Shoes makes you stand a little taller...

Wearing Red Shoes protects you from Wicked Witches...
Wearing Red Shoes can help you find your way home again...

Wearing Red Shoes just makes you feel like everything is going to be alright.