Hello, you lovely people!

There are many times in my life I have bemoaned being an almost 5’10” female. When interacting with my shorter friends, I wind up often feeling like the big, dopey sidekick from classic Looney Tunes cartoons, or like Briar Bear from Disney’s Song of the South. Being in theatre makes this worse. When auditioning for plays, I am usually taller than the leading man and therefore overlooked in casting.

These problems seem so petty when considering Robert Pershing Wadlow, the tallest man in the world on record. He was born in 1918 at a seemingly normal height and weight; by the age of 8, however, he was 6 feet tall. At the time of his death, his height had reached 8’11”. His growth was due to an abnormally overactive pituitary gland.

Most of Wadlow’s belongings were destroyed by his family so they would not become collectibles for us weirdos. However, several of his shoes are still in existence and scattered around in various locations. One of them is on display at the ROSSFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY- 720 Dixie Highway, Rossford, OH.

Wadlow reportedly lived in Rossford for a short period of his all-too-short life. He was taken ill in Manistee, Michigan due to infected blisters from a badly fitted leg brace and died shortly after. He was only 22 years old.

This shoe is a size 37AA. That’s 18.5 inches long!

Poor man. And we thought walking with flippers on sucked, imagine those flippers being your actual feet?!

Pay Robert Wadlow tribute by coming to visit his shoe. I don’t know how that is paying tribute, but surely it means something.

Until next time, dahlings…