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145
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SHOES
If your shoes could talk, what story would they tell? I once heard an ambassador's wife say, after two hours at a stand up cocktail party, "I have my sit down shoes and my stand up dress." How many times have you wanted to kick off your shoes and go bare foot?
I have no idea how many pairs of shoes I have had in my life. My brothers always complained that as I out grew my shoes, they always had to wear them; the result was they never had new shoes. This could be true because, I can only imagine what a task it was for my parents to keep three growing boys in shoes. I had my Sunday shoes that I wore once a week, went to church, and occasionally when I went to some other dress-up affair. The shoes that I wore every day to school, and to work on the farm, were the ones that really took the beating.
I never liked to wear boots for riding, but regular work shoes, with strings and hooks, would get caught in the stirrup or ropes and were not safe when handling horses or cattle. Low-top shoes were always getting dirt in them, so for many years I wore a shoe that was a cross between a riding boot and a low top shoe. It was easy to get in and out of the saddle, and tight enough around the ankle to keep the dirt out.
I had a pair of shoes that I wore thru heat and cold for over 12 years. They were 10½ D. walking boots that laced to the top and came just above my ankles. I bought them from Sears in July of 1955. They were in the air freight that accompanied us to Turkey, and I wore them ever step I took in the field in Turkey, Jordan, Nepal, India, Colombia SA. and Japan. They were not water proof, they have been soaked with water, and have been covered with mud from four continents. They have walked along the Jordan river from the sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea.
As the years and kilometers passed, the shoes changed in appearance. The soft brown leather became stiff and cracked. The soles wore out and three times were replaced, first with leather,the [sic] next two times, with a special material that was used in the Middle East to repair automobile tires. Each time a bit of length and width were sacrificed to hold the new soles. By 1967 it was obvious that I would have to say goodbye to the beloved shoes, but when we came home I just put them on the shelf, and had no reason to wear them.
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Metzger Memories
