Then she looked down at my hands and saw the shoes. "Junior, what are those?" she said. "Honey, I told you that we would have to wait." "Wait a minute Mama," I told her. "That man said I could have them." Mama looked around, "Man? What man?" I turned and pointed to where he was, but he was gone.On a spring day in 1986, I was browsing in a thrift store located in southeast Houston. Having survived several economic shifts in the community, it was a...