Best In Show
Commencements at Pierce are pretty rowdy occasions. Friends and family bring whistles, horns, and bubble-blowers; candidates wear leis of flowers; there's a lot of hooting and hollering. Generally, as I've said, I'll amuse myself by studying the graduates' shoes, and will mentally give out a Best In Show.
This year I mentioned this to the only other member of the History Department to turn up for the occasion (the Dept Chair broke his ankle this weekend, and the other two full-timers live a LONG way away. I was the only adjunct to put in an appearance). We were well situated in the front row, and during the speeches, we'd been watching a gopher duck in and out of his hole between us and the band, nervously getting his dinner. But once the graduates started coming by, we both got into the shoe-patrol with such enthusiasm that three female and one male professor in the seats behind us joined in, and there were some truly stunning stilettos on parade. (I don't know how they got across the lawn in those things). There were, I should say, a number of beautiful and classic pumps, plus the usual sprinkling of Converse All-Stars and jeans. One girl had bright-colored sixties-flowers-and-rhinestones - flat heels, like a sensible girl - and another, horrifying lavender stilettos with long, pointy toes. She must have been in agony. I've for years been a complete sucker for gladiator-sandals, but I've never understood high-heeled ones; how would you fight anybody that way? There was a small but impressive Men's Division as well.
I must say we all got pretty rowdy - there in our academic Time Lord robes. Opinion on Best in Show was split between the silvery spectator stilettos with LITTLE BALLS on the bottoms of the heels (to prevent them sinking into the ground?) which gave a rather Queen-of-Outer-Space effect, and a beautiful pair of black suede pumps with tiny white polka-dots, classy and gorgeous.
Commencement was fairly short this year, and I got home around 9 p.m. and went to bed.
This year I mentioned this to the only other member of the History Department to turn up for the occasion (the Dept Chair broke his ankle this weekend, and the other two full-timers live a LONG way away. I was the only adjunct to put in an appearance). We were well situated in the front row, and during the speeches, we'd been watching a gopher duck in and out of his hole between us and the band, nervously getting his dinner. But once the graduates started coming by, we both got into the shoe-patrol with such enthusiasm that three female and one male professor in the seats behind us joined in, and there were some truly stunning stilettos on parade. (I don't know how they got across the lawn in those things). There were, I should say, a number of beautiful and classic pumps, plus the usual sprinkling of Converse All-Stars and jeans. One girl had bright-colored sixties-flowers-and-rhinestones - flat heels, like a sensible girl - and another, horrifying lavender stilettos with long, pointy toes. She must have been in agony. I've for years been a complete sucker for gladiator-sandals, but I've never understood high-heeled ones; how would you fight anybody that way? There was a small but impressive Men's Division as well.
I must say we all got pretty rowdy - there in our academic Time Lord robes. Opinion on Best in Show was split between the silvery spectator stilettos with LITTLE BALLS on the bottoms of the heels (to prevent them sinking into the ground?) which gave a rather Queen-of-Outer-Space effect, and a beautiful pair of black suede pumps with tiny white polka-dots, classy and gorgeous.
Commencement was fairly short this year, and I got home around 9 p.m. and went to bed.
No comments have been added yet.
