Ode to a pair of flip-flops

One may only imagine the rush of disappointment materializing after Googling or Yahooing or Binging and finding a blog with “Feet” in the title on which nothing appears exhibiting the slightest association with the foot.

Although I am too lazy to count, I doubt very many posts during the past five years of this blog’s existence had to do with feet. Quite a few missives have presented quality examples of “foot-in-mouth,” as in someone — a politician or even me — putting their foot into their mouth. That isn’t to be taken literally, of course. Finding such flexibility requires an often exhaustive search.

So, if one has any interest whatsoever in feet, today is your day on my blog. Perhaps I overstate a bit. Today is the day I write a little bit concerning feet, footwear to be precise, sandals to be even more accurate.

Over the years I have become quite the fan of the flip-flop. Please, no jokes about John Kerry or any of the other many politicians who say they are for something before they are against it, or vice versa. In fact, I wore flip-flops before flip-flops were cool. That is even before Jimmy Buffett “blew out his flip-flop” in “Margaritaville.” Mostly what I wore back then were actually known as “shower shoes.” They were issued in Navy boot camp to prevent various diseases of the foot where groups of men showered. I continued wearing them throughout the Navy and quite awhile beyond until the same type of shoe became acceptable for outdoor wear.

Books I have read about the Vietnam War indicated North Vietnamese soldiers hiked for hundreds of miles with supplies while wearing flip-flops and other sandals made from tire tread. I don’t know if that is true or not. As is often the case with tales in general, some stories from wartime are told so much that they are taken as fact even if they started out as fiction or exaggeration. It is more than plausible though and a good reason to think a pair of good flip-flops made of sturdy material might prove to be durable footwear.

The summer and fall I took some post-graduate courses I would be chided by friends sometimes for playing hours of volleyball in my flip-flops. But hey, even though I might jump out of my sandals when I went up for a hit I would get the job done.

I have practically lived in flip-flops since my “retirement” five years ago. I speak of the time I have worked part-time while attempting to make money — a “living” would be a stretch — as a freelance writer. This does not include the time when I go off and do my part-time thing, when I have been out on a writing assignment or some other occasion requiring long pants such as freezing-a** weather. But other than that, yes, I have gone through some pairs of flip-flops such as the ones pictured on this page.

The wear has increased on my “flops” with the combination of my very sparse use of my walking and hiking shoes since I developed both foot neuropathy from diabetes and extreme lower back pain which may be pinched nerves from protruding disks or something completely different, as Monty Python used to say.

In the picture are a pair of Stone Creek flip-flops I bought at Academy. This is my second pair of this particular style. I also have two other pair of flip-flops, one made with leather and the other just a relatively cheap pair. If you notice the wear, on the pictured Stone Creek pair, one might assume they are comfortable. One might be right. Sometimes they feel as if they are not there. And sometimes, they’re not!

Combining the comfort with almost omnipresent numbness on the soles of my feet from neuropathy, it can sometime be difficult to tell whether they are there. I have had to ride miles and miles before to find one of my flops because I didn’t feel my foot coming out of it when I got inside an auto.

My nurses at the VA fuss at me for wearing flip-flops since I have diabetes. They are afraid I might hit something or step on something which could turn into an infection. I appreciate their concern. But a person has to have a little comfort in their lives. Flops are mine.