Dead Man’s shoes: By Cody

On Christmas day, just before my mission, I got a call from grandpa Roskelley. Generously, he wanted to give me a good pair of shoes for my mission. Now remember, grandpa lived through the depression and loved to get doughnuts out of Albertson’s garbage. The only gift that he had ever given me was a tie that was about 30 years old when he gave it to me, and had been initially bought from D.I. So, I was a little hesitant when he told me to come on over and pick out a good pair of missionary shoes. I tried to be kind by saying, “Oh grandpa, you are so kind, but really I will be fine!” Grandpa insisted that every missionary needs a good pair of shoes and asked me to come right over. Well, I drove over to his house. When I walked up the stairs of his home, I could see 10 to 15 pairs of old grandpa shoes lined up in front of the couch. I smiled and tried to look excited. As I sat on the couch, I saw one pair of shoes that looked like mailman shoes. They were black, shinny, and they had a thick rubber sole on the bottom. As I picked up the mailman shoes, I looked over at grandpa and said, “Thanks grandpa, these look great!” To this grandpa replied, “Well how do you know if those are the right ones, when you haven’t even tried the others on?” He then had me try on every pair of shoes. When I was done trying on the shoes, I again picked up the mailman shoes and said, “Thanks grandpa, these will be great!” When grandpa saw my selection, he smiled and said, “Those are a fine pair of shoes. You know, I’ll bet those shoes cost 75 dollars new. But, when someone dies over at the old-folks home, they sell their shoes for just 5 dollars.” I quickly looked down at my gently used pair of shoes and back at grandpa and said, “Wow, that sounds like a great deal – just 5 dollars!” I walked out of grandpa’s house the proud owner of a dead man’s shoes.

Ironically, I polished and cleaned up the shoes that grandpa gave me, and they ended up being the most durable shoes I wore on my mission. Some day, if I ever get to Heaven, I hope to meet and tell the original owner of the shoes that his shoes served me well – and grandpa only paid 5 dollars!