In all the years I have attended the Miss Mississippi Pageant I would never have dreamed of wearing tennis shoes. But this Thursday after a thunderstorm passed through Vicksburg and a drizzle still ensued up until the time of the competition, I made the decision to wear my white Cole Haan sneakers with the animal print strip along the side with a silky skirt and blouse.

Obviously, I would have never considered this fashion choice if it wasn’t all the rage, but if you look around, it seems tennis shoes can now be worn with any type of outfit and to just about any event.

I’ve wondered how Jackie O would have felt about this tennis shoe trend? My guess is she would have turned her nose up at it. Her style was always so classic, but then again, she was a true fashion icon so maybe she would have found wearing sneakers apropos had it suited her needs, which was why of course, I slipped on a pair Thursday.

A few years back I had minor surgery on my foot, which unfortunately altered my high heel lifestyle. To say I was saddened by having to have a procedure that prevented me from ever wearing stilettos again would be an understatement. Not that I’m relegated to never wearing heels, but certainly not the kind I had in the past.

Therefore on Thursday, with the rain and the altered stability of my foot, I decided to think like the younger girls and laced up my tennis shoes.

I was a little concerned that at my mature age folks might talk, especially since I was going to be doing a Facebook live interview with the winners of Thursday’s preliminary competition. And with the whole world watching — well maybe not the whole world, just those who tuned into The Vicksburg Post’s live feed — I was afraid viewers could take issue with me wearing tennis shoes to a dressy event. So, like all conditioned Girl Scouts, I came prepared. Before I left the house, I slipped a pair of heels inside my purse and just before I went on stage for the interviews, I put them on my feet and tucked the tennis shoes in to my purse.

I was pleased with my little wardrobe caper especially since no one was the wiser.

While wearing tennis shoes to the pageant made my trek from the parking lot to the Vicksburg Convention Center more comfortable and safer, I can’t say sneakers will continue to trump my shoe style.

But they sure were a sufficient substitute on a rainy pageant night.

Terri Cowart Frazier writes features for The Vicksburg Post and serves as Editor of Vicksburg Living magazine. She can be reached at terri.frazier@vicksburgpost.com.