They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but I am here to tell you this old dog can still be trained.
I was on a sales call at Cragoe Realty last week and it’s not unusual for Gene Cragoe and me to get enthralled in a conversation about this, that or the other thing. Well, last week we had one of those conversations, and about midway through discussing the topic of the day, Gene leans over to me and says, “You tie your shoes wrong.”
I told him, “I have been tying my shoes that way all my life and now you come along and tell me I’m doing it wrong.”
Not only have I been tying my shoes the same way for 50-plus years, I have been double-knotting them for the past 30 years. Nonetheless, according to Gene, I was doing it wrong.
As you can imagine, the topic of discussion changed from whatever we were talking about to shoe-tying.
It wasn’t long and Gene was giving me a shoe-tying lesson.
Apparently where I was going astray was after I make my bunny ear with one side of the lace I was wrapping the other string over the bunny ear. Instead, according to Gene, “the shoe tying police,” I should go under the bunny ear.
You might be asking yourself as I did, “What difference does it make?” Well, according to the shoe-tying police, the bunny ears flop neatly to each side of your shoe if tied correctly.
Gene also says they stay tied better so I won’t have to double-knot my shoes anymore. Truth be told, I wasn’t really buying into this looping the string under the bunny ear crap, but I figured we would agree to disagree.
Later that day I was putting my shoes on, and as I was tying them, I thought about our conversation earlier that day. So I thought, “What the heck. I’ll give it a try.” Tying your shoes the same way all your life and then suddenly changing the way you do it is a bit of a challenge.
After a couple of attempts I mastered it. I felt like a 3-year-old who just successfully tied his shoes for the first time. Sure enough, the bunny ears flop one on each side of my shoe just like Gene said they would, and I haven’t had to double-knot my laces either.
So there you go. This old dog learned a new trick and is tying his shoes the Gene Cragoe way.