Signing autographs for the children from Hexter Elementary in Dallas, Texas
Several months after I visited Hexter Elementary at Dallas ISD, one of the teachers told me about an exercise her kindergarteners had done.
The objective was simple:
“Tell me your favorite thing about the school year.”
Then she sent me a picture of one student’s answer.
It said:
“Him.”
The “him” the student was referring to was Mr. Blue Shoes.
All these years later, I don’t have the exact picture the student drew, but I remember what happened.
I actually played at that school at least twice—so they liked me!
I remember a little something about almost every show I’ve ever played, which is now in the thousands.
You can actually see a snapshot of where I’ve been over the last 18 years here:
https://www.mrblueshoes.com/tour-archive
Not every show is listed, but a substantial portion of the dates since I started keeping track are there.
But the point is, it wasn’t just that one student.
Other students started drawing pictures of Mr. Blue Shoes too, almost as if they had come to some sort of playground consensus about what they were going to report to their teacher.
All these years later, even the artwork I got permission to use on my letterhead was made by a kindergartener named Emma, who is probably in college by now.
And these aren’t just drawings kids make.
They’re memories.
Experiences like these can become seminal events in their lives.
The same thing happened to me.
I remember when the high school band came and played Christmas songs at my elementary school, T.J. Lee Elementary in Irving, Texas.
Out of everything that happened during elementary school, why is that one of the few memories I can still see vividly?
Because experiences like that stick with you.
And that’s why, after 18 years and thousands of performances, I still believe in what Mr. Blue Shoes does.
It works.