When I was a kid growing up on a pint-sized farm in Western Australia, I thought shoes were a grown-up horror. Bare feet were bliss.
Ah, those hot summer days feeling the dust under one’s toes, those cold wintry days of slopping along the long shallow ditch through the cow paddock pulling a home made “boat” (actually just a shaped piece of wood with a nail at the pointy end) behind me on a piece of knotted string… Ok, so I’d emerge with blue toes at the end, and have to race back to the house to get warm again, but that was half the fun.
At school, we’d take our shoes off the moment we hit the bare earth of the playground and not put them back on until the bell went to bring us inside again. The boys often wouldn’t even do that much. They’d sneak inside without shoes and at the end of the day their soles would be black because those jarrah board floors happily gave up some of their ingrained generations of oil…
Of course I paid a price for all that. I have two scars on the top of my feet still clearly visible nearly 60 years later. Whatever scars I had on the soles have long been worn off. The other price I still pay. I grew up with broad feet, typical of people who run around bare foot in their growing years.
As I have small feet otherwise, finding shoes to fit has always been a problem.
Today I walked into a shoe shop, wasn’t intending to buy anything, truly – I was just waiting for my husband – and I found a brand of shoe that fitted me beautifully. And they had my size. Fifteen minutes later I walked out with three pairs of shoes that fit. And look good. And made with leather uppers. And they weren’t expensive either.
Now that is bliss.
Didn’t meant to buy anything, yeah, as if we believe that!!!! I’m afraid I don’t do shoes any more, these days I tend to live in running shoes be it summer or winter. As they have orthotics, they are so comfortable and at my age, who cares.
Yay – isn’t it wonderful when you get something you really want and need at a decent price?
I empathise Glenda because I have the same problem for the same reasons as you.
My barefeet youth nemesis.
1. Bindi Eyes – Eye shaped thorny weeds cunningly hiding in grass.
2. Chillblanes in winter.
3. Disputes with my mother about waring clunky, pinching shoes to school.
4. Plantar warts that had to be surgically removed from the soles of my feet as a teenager.
5. Finding comfortable shoes for my wide feet even today.
Otherwise, the sheer bliss of running around in bare feet on a farm in my youth.
The only thing better than finding that serendipitous pair of shoes would be finding the perfect handbag to match…..mmmmmm, love handbags!!!!
Bare feet it’s soo cool ^^ i would always wear it that way if i could too!
My favourites shoes are the flip-flops one, isn’t it funny for someone who has been a shoe seller a few years ! I’ve seen so many people with painfull shoes because they prefer to look nice.Wearing some comfortable shoes is really so important, otherwise you get your feet distorted (can we say distorted en english for feet ?)
In france there is a saying ‘c’est souvent le cordonnier le plus mal chaussé’ in english i’ve discovered this translation “The shoemaker’s children are often shoeless” ^^
Are bindi eyes the same thing as double gees? They were the nemesis of my childhood. They are caltrops with dagger sharp thorns, at least one of which was always turned upwards. They are hard and strong enough to stab through layers of hard sole (de rigeur for a constantly barefoot child) and still draw blood. I loathed the things.
And Gynie, sexy or not, I have always hated high heels, even though I have worn them at times. I guess I just like comfort too much…
Gynie that means that the shoemakers children are often too poor to be able to afford shoes not going barefoot for preference.
Flip Flops are very very bad for your feet according to my foot nurse.