One of the first memories I have as a child was sitting on the edge of my sandbox on a sunny summer’s day and extending my legs and bare feet into the middle of the box and pushing up piles of cool damp sand with my toes. That was the best. They were good toes!
As I grew I pretty much forgot about my toes. And took my feet for granted. Except for the times I managed to injure them.
There was the time I was riding my stingray on the dirt path across from my house and I decided to put my sandaled foot down to break before the road. The sole of the sandal scooped up a piece of broken glass that was lying in the dirt and crammed it into my foot and lanced the bottom of my big toe. That hurt. I still have a scar.
Then there was the time I decided to wear China Doll shoes out on a date with a nice reliable guy with a decidedly unreliable car. It was the middle of a snowstorm, the car stalled, and I ended up walking about a mile home in a northern Wisconsin blizzard. When I finally made it back to my apartment, my feet felt like flippers on the bottom of my legs, numb and clumsy. During the next few days as they thawed the pain throbbed and it was excruciating. A week later the skin peeled off in thick layers, but finally they healed and I could walk again without any problem and barely a memory of the whole horrible frost bitten ordeal.
Then there came more fashion affliction.
It was the mid-seventies and platform shoes were really “in”. And of course I had to have a few pairs. One pair of platform sandals that I owned had the soles carved out of wood and leather straps to hold the wooden soles onto your feet. I wore them a lot. They are quite challenging to walk around on after a few brandy and cokes. So the ankles were twisting and the back was swaying all through the seventies.
[Just a short note about the particular anatomy of my feet. They are very wide and have very high arches. My arches are so high that it is hard for me to keep clogs on.]
By the eighties the fashion industry had come up with even more ways of torturing my feet and I happily hopped into each and every pair of their medival torture contraptions. Retro shoes were the flavor of the day and I was right there trying to cram my triple Es into Double As. And I did it. And I walked on them all night. Night-after-night. And just so you know, they weren’t flat soled either, they were high-eee heels, so they pushed my foot down and into that narrow opening for hours. I liken it to some forms of Asian foot binding. I still have no feeling in the two toes on the right side of my right foot.
After that, I decided if I had to wear shoes, then comfort would be my main goal. Since they don’t really make wide shoes with high arches to sell at the local shoe store I have never achieved true foot comfort wearing shoes. The ones I get to buy are always a compromise between those that fit lengthwise and pinch the ball of my foot and the top of my arch, and those that don’t pinch but are a size too long and I trip over them.
My feet have been there for me through the years, regardless of how I’ve abused them. They’ve gotten me from here to there almost painlessly for just about 50 years. I have always loved my high arches. They were one of the only parts of my large-boned and mannish body that actually made me feel somewhat feminine. I felt they were golden.
But now my poor feet are carrying around twice the weight they were meant to bare. I really should be walking on all fours. Extra weight, time, and high arches have taken their toll on my plantar anatomy. Things are shifting, and it hurts… a lot.
I have this heel pain that burns constantly. It dulls my enthusiasm about moving. I guess it is called Achilles Tendonitis. And there are exercises I can do to stop the pain. But I think it is going to be slow. It is another one of those “Catch 22” situations that life keeps throwing at you --- My foot has a problem and I am overweight. If I lose weight my foot won’t hurt any more, but in order to lose weight I have to exercise and in order to exercise I most certainly need to use my foot. ---
some foot notes:
stretching in the morning, at night, before and after exercise, keep things like feet and ankles from injury.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/achilles-tendinitis/DS00737/DSECTION=3
Bata Shoe Museum: http://www.batashoemuseum.ca/collectindex.html
A place to buy wide shoes: http://www.shoebuy.com/womens-comfort-shoes/p3.htm
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