Head over shoes, a face goes slamming into the pavement
I’ve noticed a new fad amongst the youngster set in recent times, primarily in the elementary and younger middle school kids. They wear these silly shoes that have wheels in them. They’ll be walking along perfectly normally, and then they do something to engage the mechanism (I’m not sure exactly how this works), and boom, they’re off rolling, like a bat out of hell. It’s like wearing selectable-mode roller skates on an everyday basis.
I really don’t like these shoes. I’ve had kids run into me at shopping malls because they were going too fast. By virtue of being young, they’re getting away with violating certain common-sense rules like “No skating inside malls.” I don’t want to be the geezer yelling at the kids to get off my damn lawn, but sometimes, it’s necessary. I even saw a girl skating around inside of a sit-down restaurant, and she nearly got taken out by someone scooting their chair back to go to the restroom.
And now doctors are warning us that skate shoes are dangerous. Oh really? Skating around without protective gear is dangerous? Huh. I guess that’s what they get, then. By putting skates into everyday shoes, kids are going to be using them all the time, most likely without helmets and other equipment. I’m sure there are a good number of face-to-pavement mergers, as well as knees-to-asphalt and cement-to-wrists meetings. But, hey, a lifetime of brain damage is worth it as long as kids can be cool and skate around on their shoes, right?
I really think this stupid fad should end soon. Shoes are good enough. No need to try to one-up them by putting wheels into them. Walking is generally safe. Zooming around everywhere on skate shoes that don’t even have brakes in them isn’t.
Better be careful with the kind of shoes you wear. When walking into a party, better get a good pair of dress shoes. Ready to walk in a wedding? Get yourself a nice pair of wedding shoes for the occasion.
September 27th, 2008 at 11:14
What’s with the advertisement?