Angie's shoe post today reminds me: I've sometimes wondered if where and when I came of age has helped preserve my feet. For others who came of age in the early 90s, I have two questions: one, what kind of shoes did you mainly wear, and two, what are your feet like now?

I wore mainly classic Doc Marten boots and Birkenstocks (with lumberjack socks in the winter; feel free to laugh!). I was in science at the time -- a very un-buninessy faculty -- at a particularly left-leaning uni. I wouldn't have been caught dead in a pair of dressy shoes for any occasion other than a wedding or funeral. After graduating and getting a teaching job, I did buy a few pairs of "nice" boots, but they were all those 2" block heels you got in the mid-90s, and none of them had pointy toes. I was on my feet all day, so foot comfort was paramount. I didn't get my first pair of properly high heels until I was in my mid-30s.

Today, at 45, my feet are fine. No bunions, no hammertoes, no foot pain. I wonder if two decades of comfort footwear saved my feet? My mum had terrible bunions, and I know they say those are genetic, but running around for decades in pointy-toe high heels can't possibly help matters!