Shoes

 I had been in "exile" at the downtown Belk store for about 9 months.  It was time for me to come back to Columbia Mall, and there was a full-time opening in Men's Shoes, so I took it.  I didn't know much about selling shoes, but I immersed myself in the different brands and qualities.  I got to know a lot about tennis shoes, running shoes, cross training shoes, dress shoes, you name it shoes.
 One Saturday, we were very busy with a back to school sale.  Our small department space was swamped with customers.  I had one other sales person helping me.  We were trying to take them in the order they had come into the area, but it got increasingly difficult to do so.  As I began waiting on a woman, a man stepped ahead of her and announced rather rudely that he and his son were next.  I apologized to him, but I said I thought she was ahead of him.  She agreed with me.  This man, who I will not name, was a well known African-American in the community.  He got madder with me, and then yelled out that I was a racist for not waiting on him first.  He may have been trying to score some points with his son, and I apologized again.  I told him I would get to him as quickly as possible.  He was demanding to speak to my supervisor.  He told me he wanted to have me fired.  He asked me what my name was, and I told him "Walter Durst".  He said, "Durst?  Are you related to John Durst?"  I said "Yes, he's my brother".  To which he kind of calmed down and said that he knew my brother, so he wouldn't have me fired.  The ironic thing about this story that the man didn't know what that he knew my brother from his days in Public Relations.  This man hired my brother to do some work on a five-year plan for his group.  My brother didn't have time to do that job, so he gave the job to me to do the research and write the plan.  I then gave it to my brother, and he put his name on it, and gave it to this man.  So, the man, who wanted to have me fired, had no idea that I was the one who wrote his plan.  I don't think he ever did.
 Another fun day was the day of the gang fight.  We had heard that two rival gangs were in the mall and had come into the upstairs entrance to our store.  There had been a skirmish upstairs, but there was a full-blown war that erupted in the Men's Department.  The kids were all in high school.  They were throwing punches and pushing guys into fixtures.  Many of them broke.  They also picked up plastic hangers and were hitting each other with them.  One guy found some walking canes with ducks on the handles.  They used those as weapons and broke many of them,  One guy picked up a boot from Shoes and hit another guy in the head with the heel causing blood to get on the shoe.  Most of the customers and associates were stunned watching this.  One associate yelled out to them, "Who's going to pay for all of this?"  We were afraid they were going to turn on her, but she stood her ground.  I went to my phone and called security.  They came out of their office, which was nearby, and got the gang members out into the parking lot.  They could fight out there without harming any more merchandise.  The police came and broke up the fight but didn't arrest anyone.
 There was a lot of down time during the day where nothing was happening, so I used that time to write songs.  Some of them were pretty good like "She Said Yes", "She Said No", and "Dream Girl".  Chris and Del would record them later on, and I'll write about that later.
 One day, a man came into the department and wanted to order a pair of Stacy Adams lace-up boots in grey.  He had always wanted a pair, but we didn't have them in stock, so I had to order them.  When they came in, I gave the man a call, and he came in to get them.  The man was in his 70's.  He was so proud of them that he wanted to wear them straightway.  As they were new shoes, he had not gotten used to them.  He went outside, and one heel caught the curb, and he fell into the parking lot.  He came back into the store.  His pants were torn, and he was bleeding on his hands and knees.  The first thing out of my mouth was asking him if he was okay.  He said he was, but he was just embarrassed that he had fallen.  The heel had come off of the shoe, and he wanted me to order another pair, which I agreed to do.  About a week later, I got a call from the Belk Legal Department in Charlotte.  They told me that a customer of mine was suing me for damages for selling him a faulty pair of shoes.  Not only was I being sued but also my supervisor; the Personnel Department for hiring me; the store manager for hiring the HR person; the corporate office for hiring the store manager; and the shoe company for making the shoes.  It seemed that the man had two sons.  One was a doctor, and the other was a lawyer.  They saw some big bucks in their eyes.  I told our lawyers what had happened, and I filled out a sworn document.  Everybody else that was named in the lawsuit backed me up with my story.  The judge threw out the case.  The man admitted that his sons put him up to filing the lawsuit.  He just wanted the shoes.  We gave him a free pair of shoes, and he was a happy man.