I love the way Porter smells of sweat and sunshine after a long day of summer play. I also love staying up late, sleeping in, and snoozing in the middle of the afternoon. I get to enjoy reading the paper, drinking coffee, and eating all while outside on the deck. There’s also sleepovers, sprinklers, and swimming; baseball, bikes, and barbeques. The list of what I love about summer could truly go on and on. But I’ll conclude with an explanation of just one more thing I love about summer, bare feet.
After a long winter, one of the things I most look forward to is when the weather cooperates with my desire to shed my socks. Conversely, one of the low points of fall is finally giving in and putting those socks back on. I start no-sock season as soon as I can, usually with a pedicure and leg shave, then I try to make it last for as long as possible.
I used to be a little self-conscious about my feet and would never wear open toed shoes or sandals. I finally realized that life is too short for such nonsense, and this was even before I had cancer. I now have lots of open toed shoes, sandals and flip flops and I get lots of pedicures too.
So for me, bare feet include sockless feet as well as going bare foot, which I also enjoy. I love that I can feel the cool grass, warm pavement, hot deck, and wet pool. I also love looking at the bare feet of my kids, especially Parker’s chubby little feet. I remember a piece of random advice from a parent of a child with Down Syndrome. She told me that Payless was a good source of wide shoes since kids with Down Syndrome tend to have wide feet. The interesting thing is Parker’s feet are not wide in width but in height. It’s a little challenging to get his feet in shoes and sandals because of the “fat” or “chub” that rounds out the tops of his feet.
I used to be a little self-conscious about my feet and would never wear open toed shoes or sandals. I finally realized that life is too short for such nonsense, and this was even before I had cancer. I now have lots of open toed shoes, sandals and flip flops and I get lots of pedicures too.
So for me, bare feet include sockless feet as well as going bare foot, which I also enjoy. I love that I can feel the cool grass, warm pavement, hot deck, and wet pool. I also love looking at the bare feet of my kids, especially Parker’s chubby little feet. I remember a piece of random advice from a parent of a child with Down Syndrome. She told me that Payless was a good source of wide shoes since kids with Down Syndrome tend to have wide feet. The interesting thing is Parker’s feet are not wide in width but in height. It’s a little challenging to get his feet in shoes and sandals because of the “fat” or “chub” that rounds out the tops of his feet.
Bare feet are a huge issue for my mom. We grew up not wearing shoes in the house. There was always a pile of shoes down by the door where we took off our shoes as soon as we entered or put them on right before we left. When we brought friends home, as soon as we cracked the door to go in the house we would immediately here, “TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF!” My mom would always feel the need to remind us, even though we have lived with her our entire lives and know the expectation.
I have to admit; at times it made me feel awkward to make my friends take their shoes off. I already felt different enough. This was also the era of Converse high tops, with all the laces, not to mention the possibility of sharing sweaty, stinky feet. At least my mom didn’t make our friends wash their feet while at our house, she reserved that just for us.
Though I consider my mom’s behavior regarding shoes and feet to be slightly obsessive, I have witnessed her friends who vacuum immediately after company leaves and who wear shoes inside which have been designated for indoor use only. Inside shoes do not go outside and outside shoes don’t come in.
I have to admit; at times it made me feel awkward to make my friends take their shoes off. I already felt different enough. This was also the era of Converse high tops, with all the laces, not to mention the possibility of sharing sweaty, stinky feet. At least my mom didn’t make our friends wash their feet while at our house, she reserved that just for us.
Though I consider my mom’s behavior regarding shoes and feet to be slightly obsessive, I have witnessed her friends who vacuum immediately after company leaves and who wear shoes inside which have been designated for indoor use only. Inside shoes do not go outside and outside shoes don’t come in.
I did a little “research” on this topic (surfed the net) to try and find an explanation for this practice. Koreans do a lot of living activities on the floor. They sleep on the floor, sit on the floor while eating, and hang out on the floor when visiting with company. So it would make sense that you wouldn’t want to be soiling the floor you eat off of. It definitely is a “cleaner” way to go and makes for a lot less wear and tear on flooring. It makes sense, it’s just inconvenient.
No comments:
Post a Comment