A short story about baby shoes

Possibly the greatest short story ever penned was written about baby shoes. The six-word tale simply goes: For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.

Though it leaves a lot for the imagination, it still carries heavy meaning and undertones. The story also shows the importance of brevity. To be able to get your point across as concisely as possible is a valuable and underutilized skill, even in a world with ever shrinking attention spans. 

This short story, which gave way to the flash fiction genre of storytelling, is popularly attributed to Ernest Hemingway, one of the most versatile American writers who is best known for his short stories, famous for concise, to-the-point sentence structure. There is even a sub-genre called six-word memoirs, that has a few published collections. 

As the tale goes, the story was scribbled on napkins during a lunchtime drinking and discussion session between New York intellectuals at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. Research suggests the story actually dates back to the early 1900s and Hemingway most likely had nothing to do with it, but as they say, never let the truth get in the way of a great story.   

If the six words are based in truth or just a sad tale, we’ll probably never know. I however have a story about baby shoes that is entirely true (Editor’s note: writers are liars by nature and always take what they say with a grain of salt).  

A longtime friend of mine and his family dropped in for a visit not too long ago. It is a person I’ve known my whole life, and though we don’t see each other as often as we used to, we still try to keep up with each other. We went to high school together and his parents live very close to my family, so when he comes home to visit, he makes a point to stop by. 

He and his wife have three daughters, steppingstone babies ranging from about 8 years old to nearly 2. His brood and my crew get along and play well together. My son doesn’t even mind being surrounded by girls. As anyone with kids knows, when you travel as a family there is a lot of extra luggage. The car must always be stocked with food, drinks, a change of clothes and toys and extras of all of the above. 

When you leave you are bound to forget something, and my friend is notorious for leaving something behind (thankfully not his kids). After this last visit we scoured the house, checking every room to make sure all was accounted for. All seemed well, and he drove away in his silver minivan to another adventure. Seeing an old friend is always good for the soul. 

The next morning as I left for the day, I noticed something glinting in the sunlight. In the yard was a pair of glittery baby shoes, discarded by his youngest. That evening I brought them inside. Later I received the following message: “We didn’t leave Hayden’s shoes there by chance did we? She has been barefoot all day today.”  

A pickup was arranged, and the shoes were returned. 

Here’s my six-word memoir: Friend needed help, forgot baby shoes.

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