He Never Met Or Knew A Stranger

Art Donovan died this week and yesterday, Friday August 9th was his funeral and I watched the whole 90 minutes on TV. His buddy from the Baltimore Colts playing days is now a reverend and he, Joe Ehrmann gave the eulogy. In it he said  “Art never met a stranger.” By that he meant that anyone who met Art was not a stranger, instantly he was a friend.

This is a marvelous thing to say about someone. A stranger is a friend is a good way to live life. Sometimes I go on an elevator to the doctor’s office and because I do not walk too well at the present time, I am using a cane; my husband Jerry holds my purse. People invariably jokingly will say to him “your shoes match the purse, or your shoes do not match your purse.” I usually respond, oh I forgot to check that out before we left. Then they say to me that they love my shoes. People of all walks of life compliment me on my fifty dollars shoes, made for people with bunions and they are constructed from a fabric called neoprene. Neoprene gently stretches to conform to the bunions which can be wide at times. Mine do not hurt; they just make for buying wider shoes. So I take these satin attachable bows that I buy online and match the bow to the outfit I am wearing to brown, black, gray or tan shoes.

Voila, my shoes look like they are a brand of designer shoes costing hundreds of dollars. The bows give them a distinctive look and they clip on so you can remove them and change the shoe look all the time.

I have black bows, green bows, turquoise bows, pink bows, tan bows, blue bows, red bows, and yellow bows and oranges ones too. For Purple Friday here in Baltimore, I wear my purple bows on black shoes to honor our football team, the Ravens. Some days I wear the orange bows on gray shoes to honor our baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles.

I have people stop me constantly where did I get those shoes. I tell them where to purchase them at Footsmart online and the bows come from Absolutely Audrey online. I even had an old man ask me where I got them; he wanted to buy a pair for his wife’s eightieth birthday. When I had a MRI a few years ago, we could not eat or drink for 12 hours and there we had to drink this concoction of some kind of combination for the MRI to work. While we patients were sitting in the wait room for the various MRI procedures, several women asked me where I got the shoes. They involved in getting a procedure to find out what was wrong with us, the women saw and loved my shoes.

I should write Footsmart and Absolutely Audrey, maybe they will send me commissions’ checks every time someone from Baltimore orders from them, the bows or the actual shoes. They could offer me a free pair of shoes or some free colorful bows.

Sometimes I cannot think what to write about for these columns. I write extensively on life and ballroom dancing. I would like to tell all my readers to go out and shine. By shine I mean do something different that you have not done before. You can take some ballroom dance shoes and add a bow on them from Audrey and perhaps this will make you win in a competition.

To someone who has always wanted to dance, I would say sign up for a group of dance lessons at a school or recreation center. Try it and you will find that you sincerely will crave more, no matter what age you are now and starting.

If you have always wanted to sew your own clothing and especially in these low economic times, go take sewing courses in person or even online. My mom used to be a good what I called hemmer. She could take a long pair of the children’s pants and sew a hem on them that looked like a machine had done it. I never liked my children having bent up hems; I always left them for Mom when she came on Saturdays to visit. She seemed to get pleasure from being useful in her senior years and to do this for her two younger grandchildren.

Someone once said to me "why do you bother to go to so much work for just kids’ pair of pants?." I said that I liked my children to look stylish and Mom loved doing this now and then.

Sewing is like dancing. How? By lifting the length of the too long pants or slacks and making it an even line, dancing helps one to become more ‘even’ in their lifetime. They benefit by looking well when they attempt to dance, by being in line with other dancers and mostly by feeling good about their self. Children who look well and it does not have to be designer clothing because they outgrow the clothes too soon, but they will feel good and know they look well before their peers and adults.

When we go to a dance and we see someone who may look ‘ordinary’ and that couple gets up to dance and shines, then we are amazed. They transform themselves like Cinderella did from a plain person to a prince and princess. Once they are all on the floor and start to move like they were dancing with the stars type performers, others are so amazed.

Many years ago, my husband and I went to a wedding of an employee of ours from our pharmacy. They knew my husband as their employer, their boss and one who always was telling a joke or kidding around. When they saw us get up on the dance floor and maneuver around like we were Ginger and Fred, they looked up at him like who is that?

Is that our Dr. Jerry from the pharmacy, the boss, the pharmacist who is moving around like a real ballroom dancer? They were so amazed at the transformation; they could not believe their eyes.

So ballroom dancing, sewing, golfing, tennis can make us into stars. Not the stars in the heaven, but stars on this earth. Also your shoe with bows makes you someone different and it does not even cost more than 65 dollars for shoes and colored bows. Just think, a simple bow of various colors defines you as very stylish and lovely.

Robert Jacob Meyer, the editor of Amateur Dancers magazine for almost twenty-five years said "I implicitly believe that ballroom dancing enhances one socially, mentally and physically. It is the greatest overall enhancer in this fashion. Board games are known by experts to help one with social and mental aspects of waking hours-but not physically. Many sports help with physical aspects sometimes to a lesser degree, social and mental. It is our beloved ballroom dancing that involves one deeply in all three categories. The relationship between partners even in a single dance is much more definite than doubles tennis or sailing. Viva ballroom dancing."

Sewing a dress, shortening a hem, creating a coat out of a blank roll of material bought in a crafts store is surely creating an object of worth. Learning to ballroom dance at any age is just as creative. We become an object of adulation and respect when we go up and dance and do so in an outstanding manner.

I get a daily email called Motivation in a Minute. They are positive sayings to help one get through a day with inspiration. A latest one said ‘Change is a wonderful gift. It is the key that unlocks doors to growth and excitement." Another said  “the hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings."

Henry Thoreau said "if you advance confidently in the direction of your dreams and endeavor to live the life which you have imagined, you will meet with success unexpected in common hours."

How true. To change and to do something new like ballroom dancing or even sewing or learning golf or tennis is surely an inspiration. Even adding 15 dollar bows to your inexpensive 50 dollar shoes is being creative in your style and your mind.

If you advance with confidence, your dreams will come true and no longer will be dreams; they will happen and be now.

Though Art Donavan never met a stranger; neither will you, as people notice your shoes and especially your striking bows that you can put on any shoe you own if it is a closed toe shoe, no sandals. Try it, you will love it.

Tie a bow around your life and make life the best it can be.