Walking Barefoot

So, basically the whole reason I named my blog ‘Walk A Mile In These Shoes’ was so I could feature different sneakers, heels, flats, or simply bare feet and tell a bit of a story through any given person’s footwear of choice.

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On Monday, I went to Katie’s and we had a bit of a photo shoot. One of my favorite things in the world is to come up with character profiles. There's just so many stories to tell, so many people to meet, so many things to see, and I kind of want to learn them all. And if I can't do that, I can at least make some up! So, now, I’ve made up a story to go along with the photographs.

Hope you enjoy!

Ellen Louise Paige was born in 1946 in a small town in Massachusetts. Her father wanted to name her after his mother, Louise, but Ellen’s mother believed it was a name going out of fashion. And if there was anything that Mrs. Mary Paige was not, it was out of fashion.

And besides, she had never really been particularly fond of her mother-in-law. But, to appease her husband, she said the middle name was to be Louise. The baby’s first name was to be Ellen if it was a girl, Patrick Louis if it was a boy. Many years later, the Social Security Administration published information of the most popular baby names of each year. Ellen was in the top 100 in the year of her birth; Mary Paige was the number one in hers. And Mary was right; the name 'Louise' was slowly going into decline.

Mary Paige raised her daughter in the same fashion she had chosen her name. Everything was to be done according to what was thought of as trendy at the time. Ellen was the first in her class to sport the poodle skirt. She was also the first to stop sporting it in favor of the next trend.

Needless to say, Ellen felt by the time she turned 16 that it was her time to rebel.

She started wearing what she wanted and asked two boys down the street to help her in her quest for freedom.

Ellen even tried taking up cigars, but unfortunately she never exactly got the hang of it. Her two friends made fun of her when the first time she tried smoking she attempted to put the wrong end up to her lips.

Besides attempting rebellion and trying to take up smoking, Ellen loved playing in her front yard amidst all the blooming hydrangeas and fresh vegetation. Because the Paige family was a prominent one and had settled in Massachusetts many, many years ago, they had a house in the center of the town that overlooked the citizens’ daily lives. Ellen discovered there was a spot behind a bunch of bushes that made for the perfect place to hear gossip and watch scandals in the making.

She walks barefoot.
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Photographs can tell any story you want, that's the beauty of it, isn't it?

The real deal: Katie’s amazing mom gave me a dress from her collection. We did an impromptu photo shoot in which we stumbled across Katie’s brother and his friend. I asked to pose with the cigar, but unfortunately I didn’t even notice that I was holding it the wrong way until we were looking at pictures later on the computer. Oh dear, I'm such an amateur. Ah, well.

All photographs by the ever so wonderful Katie P.!