Is
it time yet mama, can I go barefoot? That was the number one question
come spring. We’d see the dogwoods in bloom or the redbud trees and
always commence to pull our shoes off. The older people always said
wait till the first of May or you’ll catch ye death of cold. I know
for a fact my daddy never pulled his long johns off till the first of
May. He still wore his long sleeve shirts till mama made him change
to short sleeves. He always said he was afraid he’d take cold. It
didn’t matter if it got ninety degrees in the shade and in his
older years he had such bad circulation that we might see him put his
overcoat on in the middle of the summer.
As for going barefoot,
when the shoes came off they stayed off all summer long till school
started. When we hit the door in the evening, off came the shoes.
We’d toughened our feet so and stumped our toes off so bad it was
hard to put on a pair of shoes and wear em all day. We walked the
paved road so much going to the store or getting milk from the
neighbors that we stumped our toes till there was nothing left but a
stub.
It wasn’t that we
didn’t appreciate a new pair of shoes when school started we just
couldn’t stand wearing em and it hurt our stumped toes and
calloused feet. We knew we had to make them shoes last as long as
possible cause there was no money to run back and forth to the store
buying a new pair. The boys were more rough on their shoes than me
and my one and only sister which happened to be a lot younger than me
was the biggest tomboy to ever come along. She wore out as many pairs
as the boys and had her head stuck in something all the time.
We run through the
thickets and briars till our feet were tough as a pine knot. Those
mud holes just about did us in. We’d bust every one of those
suckers dry and that toe itch was a killer. Mama would say, “don’t
complain to me, ye know what did it.” That never stopped us none
cause those mud holes were hard to resist.
I never see or hear of
a young’un anymore going barefoot and it’s a shame. I even admit
in my older years my feet are so tender I can’t stand to walk on
the ground to save my life. I walk around barefoot in the house all
day long but I gotta have an old pair of flip flops on when I go
outside.
I sure do miss those
days of going barefoot even if we wore our feet out and the joys of
running through those big, grassy fields will last a life time. And
every spring I still hear those words, is it time yet mama, can I
pull my shoes off ?
© Susie Swanson, 2019
Hope you all had a nice Easter. It was a chilly day here but lots of sunshine. Wishing you all a nice week and still praying for lots of folks on here. Blessings, ~Susie~
