Ron White Shoes celebrated its 25th anniversary this month and I visited their store in the Manulife Centre to see the founder. After Ron finished autographing a customer’s pair of sneakers, I had a chance to tell him a funny story about how we first met and I want to share it here too.
When I was in high school, I occasionally babysat 2 girls. One Saturday night, the doorbell rang. I panicked. The girls went with me to the front door and said they recognized the man outside. “It’s Uncle Ron!” Of course, I let him in so he could visit. That’s how I met Ron White. Now he’s known as the ShoeRu, but when I met him, he was simply Uncle Ron.
Usually when I go to meet and greets, I line up to take a picture for myself and the blog. However, after I told Ron the story of how we met, he pulled out his own phone to take a selfie with me and send it to his sister. That’s a first! Then we took pictures on my phone and he encouraged his sales associate to snap from multiple angles. I think nice gestures like that say a lot about the people I meet.
It was fun to stop by the store, say hi to Ron and sip champagne. He said I looked a bit familiar and couldn’t place me, which is unsurprising. It’s been a long time since I was a babysitter!
He also meets tons of people, including celebrities. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to see him. I’ve been following his Instagram account for a long time and envied how many famous women in fashion and entertainment he sees in person, like Anna Wintour and Vanessa Williams. I’m on a mission to do the same.