Maybe this morning you woke up and put your feet into the waiting slippers near your bed.  Then changed to leave the house in something different on your feet.  And probably you didn’t waste a lot of time on that decision.

Before today another person left home.  He probably had a case of shoes ready for his 9 o’clock appointment with the owner of a shoe store…..and then several more as he made his way through his territory.  And somewhere else another person boarded a plane with his case to attend a buy meeting at a department store or an internet company.  Any of these persons had also traveled to a trade show or two or three trade shows.  They are shoe salesmen who live a life that takes them away from family and friends.

There is a positive side to a shoe salesman’s life.  He belongs to a quiet fraternity that only its members know.  When he gets to those meetings his “shoe friends” are there.  And they are as important to him as the ones at home.  He knows their histories, their children’s names and sometimes, their troubles and problems.

When the pandemic closed factories and there were no shoes to sell: there was no income.  When a company downsized and cut commissions,  savings accounts were drained to survive.  And when there wasn’t enough money to send that son or daughter to college.  When there seemed to be no hope.  There was only one place with answers.

This quiet fraternity belongs to an organization that is there for each other.  Two Ten is a lifeline for the footwear industry.  It saved mine and many, many more.

– June