Back to School Traditions

As everyone is checking off their back-to-school shopping, I thought this would be a fun throwback article. 

When I sold shoes at Davison’s Shoes on the east side of the square in Nevada, I gained a new appreciation for the older generation. As someone who had always had multiple pairs of shoes throughout the year, and received new ones when I outgrew a pair, I didn’t understand that wasn’t always the case. While I was trying to find the brightest colors, coolest styles, or one endorsed by my favorite basketball player, my grandparents had grown up in a much different time of life, and their feet showed it by the time they reached their older years. 

Grateful for these stories and the perspective it still brings me today.

Bittersweet First Day of School

By Neoma Foreman

The last day of school in the spring usually signaled when I could start going barefoot. Each year at the beginning of summer vacation, I would feel like a horse let out to pasture and would kick and roll and dance in the cool grass—until I hit a thistle, or a sharp pebble. By summer’s end, my feet would be as tough as leather, and I dreaded the day when my feet would again be bound by shoes.

However, I was forever stepping on boards with nails in it the year we built a new chicken house. My parents made sure I had an up-to-date Tetanus shot, and I had to soak my foot in hot Epsom Salt water. I still cringe when I remember crying because Mother had the water too hot. She stuck her hand in it and said, “It’s barely warm.” She turned me over to Dad, who held my foot in the water and turned a deaf ear to my yelling. My older sister had gotten blood poisoning from a blister on her foot that summer. They made sure I didn’t get blood poisoning even if I didn’t appreciate it. We still use Epsom Salt water for injuries today.

One of the fun things about getting to go barefoot was playing in the mud after a rain on a hot summer day. I can still feel the mud squish between my toes. After getting covered with mud, I got to clean up in the cattle water tank, which was almost as good as the city swimming pool.

When the bittersweet days of getting ready to return to school in the fall came, I was excited about going, but those heavy, hot, stiff new shoes were not very welcome. They came off the minute I returned home in the evening. Of course, I only had one pair, and it had to do all year. It was too large when we bought it, and too small when spring arrived. Sometimes, in spite of heavy socks, I got blisters. Nowadays, when I look at my grandchildren and see those cool-looking sandals that fasten with Velcro, I am almost envious. Not that I want a pair, as I already wear the cooler styles, but in remembering what I had to wear in comparison. I hope they realize how fortunate they are.

When my husband was a child, he had to wear shoes that were too small, and it caused his little toes to go up over his feet. When he got into the Army, they wanted to amputate his toes, but he refused, saying he had gotten along with them and would continue. The Army issued him heavy boots that were plenty wide, but made his feet sweat and made him long for his barefoot days.

Nowadays, you can’t tell a country kid from a city kid by one being barefoot and the other wearing sneakers; they are all wearing flip-flops. That’s almost as good as going barefoot. However, I’ve read where some schools are outlawing flip-flops.

Maybe we could all just go barefoot together.