I don't know how this tradition started. Best I can remember was I wore those yellow shoes to our bowling league and it seemed to catch on. We started wearing yellow shoes to work every Friday for a while.
Those vibrant yellow shoes were responsible for one of my most
touching moments as a photographer. My reporter and I were doing a story on
foster homes. This particular family had taken in a 3 year old girl who had been
sexually abused by her father. We did our interviews and I shot video of the
family and the little girl. Afterwards I was sitting on the floor packing up my
gear when the little girl walked over and sat down next to me. She looked me in
the eyes, looked down at my shoes, looked back up at me, and then patted the
shoes and said "Pretty, pretty shoes". We sat there for a few minutes
talking about my shoes and what toys were her favorites. I did not think much
about our conversation until I was leaving the house, it was then the foster
mother told me that I was the first male the little girl had talked to since being removed from her abusive father. I understand
that this was a big breakthrough in her recovery...all thanks to those silly
yellow shoes.