Illustration by Marcus Allen
People in the village of Rockville Centre, Long Island, were not used to seeing lines outside of stores on the sidewalk in the middle of the day. It was an unusual sight, unlike the normal weekend crowds spilling out of the bars onto the streets. I knew a lot of people from having lived there for so long and many were wondering what I was doing outside a sneaker store in my collapsible chair in the middle of a Friday afternoon. The general reaction was a shaking of the head, a muttering of “only you,” and a major sense of disbelief. The only one who really got it was Tom, our longtime mailman, who had known my son Ben (who is a sneakers social media editor who’s been working at Complex for two years) and I since Ben was in first grade, and knew that I was just that kind of mom. He stopped by at least three times before the end of his shift to bring me a Dunkin’ and Ben water.