When was the last time you saw THAT!

My son, as many of you know, has started playing flag football. He is built just like my father-in-law - long waisted, short legged, and big, hard-to-fit feet. Last Saturday, during the tropical storm force winds, Jack played in his first football game. My in laws came and stayed for the whole game. My mother-in-law saw that Jack was wearing his "school" tennis shoes and discussed this with my father-in-law. It was their decision that Jack needed to have football cleats, which perplexed my mother-in-law because of Jack's hard to fit feet.

Jack's feet are triangles basically. His toes are all the same length, and the top of his foot is very wide. As you go back towards the heel, it narrows. Jack knows how to tie his shoes using shoe laces, but to avoid having to get Jack's shoes 2 sizes too big (so that he can slide his foot in) we use the shoes that have the Velcro. Sports shoes are harder to find because of his wide foot.

My MIL found a place not too far where a lot of the high school football players go to get their shoes (how she knows this I have no idea, but there are a lot of things she finds out). She got a pair and they tried it on the other morning, but they were too tight on the instep. So she went before work to the store and got the next size up. Yesterday afternoon, I took the kids by their house and we tried on the new pair. Jack was obviously getting frustrated, because when "Pa" came in he hobbled over to him and said, "Here Pa, you do it. Grammy doesn't know what she's doing."

So for the next 5 minutes, Jack and Pa discussed how the shoe felt. Pa squeezed and pressed all around the shoe. Jack walked back and forth and each time gave Pa an answer to the question that Pa had asked about how it felt. After running through a few "plays" it was determined that the shoes were still too tight. So my MIL said that she'd pick up Jack from school on Friday and they would go to the store so Jack could try on the shoe.

This morning when I dropped the kids of at the in laws, I heard a statement that I have never heard in my 11 years with Jdhteach's family. Pa was going to come along with Grammmy and Jack to the shoe place and help Jack pick out a shoe. I was floored. I emailed Jdhteach later in the morning and asked him when the last time he heard of his dad going shopping for shoes. I was amazed.