Footware

My current favorite footware - for California even in winter - is what Might in some places be called 'slippers' or sandals, or thongs.

Main Entry: thong

Function: noun
Pronunciation: 'tho [ng]
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English thwong; akin to Old Norse thvengr thong
1 : a strip especially of leather or hide
2 : a sandal held on the foot by a thong fitting between the toes and connected to a strap across the top or around the sides of the foot

Yeah, like that. I started wearing them for walking from the swimming pool changing room to my lane. The cement walkway is often made rough to prevent falls by children running. That footware obviates sox and sure simplifies getting footware on and off. trouble is many kinds and styles are made so poorlythe thong quickly breaks after a couple of weeks. Finally I found the 'thongs' of my dreams: they are colored red, white and green, the colors of the Mexican flag, and along the outside of the canvas "strap" across the front of the foot is printed nicely "MEXICO." That suited me fine: I retired in Mexico for nearly five years and returned to California when our children needed to go to school.

The other day in the men's room at McDonalds I was accosted, and was nearly forced into fisticuffs by an elderly, well dressed Mexican man who accused me of stepping on his country, and, besides, the 'shoes/sandals/thongs' I was wearing, plus my feet, were dirty. I ended up screaming at him over and over to "Grow up."

Lest you think this is a most unlikely, atypical McDonalds confrontation, let me briefly recount another event, far, far more serious, that happened a couple of weeks ago in a children's public playground not much more than a hundred yards as the crow flies from that men's room. My son, aged eleven, witnessed with his very own eyes a man shot to death in broad daylight. I've never seen anyone killed. I served in Korea in time of war, and while I saw bodies, I never actually saw anyone murdered, killed, or rubbed out. I hated that my son had to see that. And I'm frightened that he was not more upset: is he growing up in a world where murder happens? So what??

I'll save the sermon. But our world, everyone's world, is not safe.

Barry