right foot or left? out of order

The kid could not figure out which shoe went on his right foot. As often as not he got it wrong. I showed him repeatedly how the shoes looked when they were right.
I showed him repeatedly how the shoes looked when they were right. We tried various methods to help him remember, but he still started his days with his shoes on the wrong feet.
The summer he was 5 we camped out at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Our then family of three boys included a 3-month-old. My mornings in the tent were rather hectic as I packed diapers, extra outfits and snacks for everyone. The day we planned to explore the caverns I tossed commands left and right, “Hurry up and get dressed. Get the outfit for the baby. Load the jugs of juice in the car.” The older boys dressed themselves. My husband loaded the car and we headed for the caves.
Under the artificial lights inside the earth, I belatedly noticed that the 5-year-old’s shoes were on the wrong feet. Since there was no place to sit down and they weren’t bothering him, I said nothing.
At the rest stop, Wrong Way Hershberger joined the line at the water fountain. As he bent over the fountain. As he bent over the fountain the man behind him, chuckled and turned to the guy beside him, “Hey, look that kid has his sneakers on the wrong feet.”
That kid heard. He went off to the side, sat down and changed his shoes. It was the last time his sneakers were ever on the wrong feet.
I empathized with him. My mom used to look at my feet and shake her head, “No it’s the other way round.”
Eventually I figured out how to match my left shoes with my left foot. I should have learned to match the styles of shoes. A couple years ago I was sitting in an open circle of chairs with a dozen, well-heeled women when I noticed I was wearing the left shoe from one pair of black shoes and the right shoe from another pair. I tried to hid one foot behind the other. The ladies never said a thing.
I think I’ve learned to wear my shoes correctly, but my mind still inverses other things. As a college student of the 70s, I did not have access to a spell check. At the end of one assignment, the professor wrote, “Either you have a lot of typos or you don’t know how to spell the word receive.”
Actually I just wasn’t sure. I kept thinking ‘receive’ was an exception to the rule: “I before E except after C, or when it sounded like A as in neighbor and weigh.” Since receiving his note, my I’s and E’s are always in the right order.
But something is still cross in my brain. Last week I was assigned to get a picture of a ribbon cutting at 2401 W. Hillsboro. I noted the assignment, figured out where it would be on Hillsboro, counted the minutes I needed to get there and left on time. I was almost to the 2000 block when I realized, I was on the east side of the city and the address was for West Hillsboro.
I sped around the city on the bypass. I arrived too late to take the picture. I left feeling like a little kid caught with my shoes on the wrong feet.