When we moved into our house 30 years ago, our neighbors across the street were Ludwig and Martha, an elderly couple of Czech heritage. There were several houses around us with young children, and the neighborhood was pretty busy at times. Martha and Ludwig were always up for a chat on their porch, and loved watching the children play. Every Halloween Martha made sure she had some extra special treat bags for daughter and her best friend across the street. Martha and Ludwig passed a few years ago, and middle aged couple live there now.
I have enjoyed getting acquainted with the two young children next door to us. They moved in last summer. They are very curious about our garden and flowers, and they like to tell me what has been going on in their lives whenever we are all outside at the same time. This Halloween I made sure I had special treat bags for them, just like Martha. I told daughter I was turning into the new Martha, and she said “Those are big shoes to fill, Mom”. I hope I can live up to the challenge.
When have you stepped into someone’s shoes? Whose place have you filled? How well did it work?
Trail Baboon 
Rise and Find Your Shoes, Baboons,
I appear to have stepped into the “limping shoes” of my parents and grandparents. My grandpa (maternal) limped around the farm like Walter Brennen due to his arthritic hips, but he would not get one of the new-fangled hip replacements like his sister did. My mother and her sisters did get the hip replacements, but they did not really go all out with the rehab required, so they both limp a lot.
I am limping around the house with my knee replacement 6 weeks out. If I focus on my walking I walk without a limp, which I must concentrate on fiercely to get a limp-free permanent state. So I am headed for the gym before work—yippee—a familiar schedule. I can do 2 5minute sessions on a slow treadmill, 10 min on a recumbent bike, and 10 minutes on the seated cross trainer meant just for knee rehab. WooHoo.
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PS Renee, you sound like a great “old neighbor” in the great tradition of neighboring and all that entails. Special treat bags are impressive.
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Jacque, I am impressed – good that you have this determination.
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I came to Half Moon Bay Elementary after Christmas 1972 – the teacher of this class of 30-odd kindergarteners had taken a leave of absence, and over the holiday had decided she wasn’t returning – needed a rest. I imagine they took a while to get used to this new person. The rest of that year went OK, but I was glad to start fresh with a new class the next fall.
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The header photo was the best I could find of a revolving door. I liked the imagery.
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Thanks for explaining your intention with the header photo. I was scratching my head a bit trying to figure it out.
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wow
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I know a few situations where the shoes were NOT adequately filled. None ended well and / or are still in transition.
Interesting isn’t it, how often, a situation will bring in a temp to ‘clean house’ and then find someone to fill those old shoes. That way the new person isn’t the ‘bad guy’.
I have to think about successful shoe filling.
I do put an egg in my kids shoes every Easter but that’s different.
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PS: just realized my wrist watch was an hour off.
And there’s a wall clock with the Tasmanian Devil on the face that is up on the wall above my desk and a pain to get at. So I just leave the time set on that one. It’s right again for the next 5 months.
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I finally remembered how to change the time on the computer.
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That surprises me, BiR. Most modern computers have programming that automatically does the spring forward/fall back change. There is talk now of chucking the whole daylight savings clock changing thing. I’ve wondered. If daylight savings is discontinued, will all those computers go on switching the hour anyway?
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Yes, every time except this one it changed automatically.
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I look around at all the volunteer jobs, some that are major leadership positions, currently filled by very OLD people (like me), and I wonder how many of them will find replacements – some of these people are/seem irreplaceable. And then twenty years down the road, will there be enough of the youngest generation to keep these organizations going?
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I yearn for someone to fill Barack Obama’s shoes……sob.
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I don’t know about filling anyone else’s shoes but I am that person in the neighborhood. Welcome baskets for new neighbors, may baskets in the spring, extra goodies to neighbors if I’ve made too much.And I know that this is appreciated. Last summer a vendor doing some work for my neighbor to the south damaged our driveway a little bit. When I ended up talking to the guy, he told me that my neighbor had called him and said “this is the best neighbor ever do whatever it takes”. That made me happy.
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what did he do?
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“damaged our driveway a little bit” is what vs wrote. Not sure I understand your question.
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They scraped off a few of the pieces of blacktop on the driveway with one of their machines.
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so he got it looking good enough to satisfy you is the other half of the positive story
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My mother used to provide pies for Thanksgiving dinner. When she died I took over the pies. I have her rolling pin.
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my brother noted at one of our business sales meetin that my dad had turned into. character . he said “you know how at some of the meetings there are old guys who evolved into pure characters … well, dad is that kind of character dad turned into.
i have kinda taken that role except i try to maintain an integrity on the business side of the equation at the same time as enjoying the character role in my persona.
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