Measure Your Feet Day?!?

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go ."

~ Dr. Seuss

"Only a fool tests the dept of the water with Both feet." ~ African proverb

“Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

Today is the wild and wacky holiday of Measure your feet day. I spent most of the morning after getting my holiday notification wondering and pondering why a person would want to measure their feet. I can't think of any reason other than if you were buying shoes. Then you could just try the shoes on. It was then that I thought about how My Daddy measured our feet when we were little children.

I guess there were too many of us to carry to the shoe store every time we needed to go. There were certain times of the year that we each got to go and pick out our own shoes. Those two times were Easter and the beginning of each school year. Easter I got patent leather , Sunday school, and any dress occasion shoes. One pair. I better take care of them. That wasn't a problem for me. I hated shoes and only wore them when I was either outside or at school. That meant the dress shoes would last me forever. Somewhere out there, My patent leather shoes are still waiting to be worn. Lost in the closet of a cousin or family friend they were passed on to. For school we got a pair of penny loafers. I liked them alright but still only wore them for school. I wish I could find me a good pair of loafers now. I think the closest you can find are dock-siders.

But when Daddy had to buy shoes and us kids weren't going along. He would come in with his notebook and have every one of us; one at the time; step on a piece of paper. He would take his pencil and draw all around our feet. then mark each paper foot with our names. He never measured the thickness of our foot and yet he would always bring home shoes that fit us. I tried that only once with my children. I had a mess. Anthony's shoes wouldn't go on his foot because his foot was too thick. They would have fit me except that they were three inches to long for my foot. Cooper's shoes wouldn't fit anyone who lived here and Even though Emily's shoes would have fit Cooper he said he wasn't wearing pink cowgirl boots. I even offered to polish them black for him and still he refused.. Can you believe it? So I tossed the paper aside and carried all of them with me to get their shoes.

I could never figure out how it worked for Daddy and Mama but never worked for me. It wasn't that Daddy knew our feet so well because even when they would get brand new foster children and they came in the middle of the night barefooted. Daddy would come stoop shouldered into The Reids store in the middle of the night with his notebook and be trying tennis shoes on the paper feet he had drawn there. They would always fit. The children would wake up the next morning with bright and colorful new tennis shoes. Maybe it was that Daddy had bought so many pairs of shoes that way that he had learned to gauge the thickness of a foot by his own drawings. I don't know how it worked for him. I just know it was not an option for me.

When my children went to the shoe store; they had a rug thing to stand them on and measure their foot, Even that was no good. Cooper would curl his toes up Making it look like he wore a size smaller than he did. Or he would try to make his foot appear to fit the shoes he wanted even if they were way to small or way to large. Once he even stuffed all those half stocking things into the toe of a pair that were big enough for me. They were snakeskin boots for a man and he swore they fit. Emily would want four or five pair at the time and throw herself on the floor crying if she couldn't have them. I finally had to threaten her with the notebook shoes if she couldn't choose just one pair. All Anthony wanted to do was get a pair of some kind and get out of the store. He said the rest of us were hoodlums.


Fun Foot Facts:

1:) There are approximately 250,000 sweat glands in a pair of feet, and they excrete as much as half a pint of moisture each day.

2:)The foot is an intricate structure containing 26 bones. Thirty-three joints, 107 ligaments, 19 muscles, and tendons hold the structure together and allow it to move in a variety of ways.

3:) When you try on shoes, try them on both feet; many people have one foot larger than the other, and it's best to fit the larger one.

4:) The 52 bones in your feet account for one quarter of all the bones in the body.

5:) If you place the heel of your foot in the inside crease of your elbow Joint, the toes of your foot will reach to your wrist.

And a bonus foot fact that My Mom taught me.. When shopping for socks if the sock will wrap around your balled up fist.. It will fit your foot. I have tried this and know it works.


I do wish everyone a Happy measure your foot day.. Even though I can't imagine why you would need to. I know they measured Coopers before putting a cast on it. I know Daddy sorta measured ours with his notebook to buy us shoes. I have tried the heel in the elbow crease many times and my foot still is a perfect fit there. I think when Dave comes home I'll measure his and mine and even Cooper's feet. Who knows when we may need to know that information!? Have a great Day!
Patsy



Feet

Big Feet
Little Feet
Nasty; stinky; scaly feet

Dancing feet
Pacing feet
Her feet; his feet; yours and My feet

Stomping feet
Running feet
Hopping ; skipping; Bare feet.

Feet! Feet! Feet!

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
1-23-2009

Happy Easter as time Marches on!

Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection. ~Watchman Nee

Today was Easter. I have always loved Easter. When I was a child I loved the candy and the pretty new dresses and the New shoes. We knew the meaning of Easter. But we were Kids. We loved the other things that were part of the celebrations.We would hide Dozens and Dozens of eggs when we were children and then count the found ones over and over till we found them all. Daddy and Mama would take turns hiding them and then Us kids would run like wild thing to try and find them all. Daddy would give a dollar to who ever found the prize egg and we all wanted that dollar. I was one of the smaller ones of eight kids so I didn't Manage to get the dollar very Often. Both of our Grandma's would come home with us after Church on Easter. It was an all afternoon event. We would have so much fun together. But time marches on.

When We were grown and all of us had children of our own we would gather at Mama and Daddy's House and they would have Plastic eggs all filled with candy and always a Easter gift for every Grandchild. My Brothers would hide the eggs and our own children would run wild everywhere till all the eggs were found. My brother Frank was always the best hider. He would always pick out a very small child and walk around with them sometimes giving a nudge or a whisper when they were close to an egg. I once told Frank that he was cheating. He laughed and said He wasn't cheating he was assisting. Frank has one Grandchild now. Everyone knows when they see them that she is the apple of his eye. I hope they hid eggs together today. I hope they made memories. We each have to build our own History. Because Time moves on for all of us.

I was a single Mom of three for a few years. Those years were tough. I would hide eggs and they would find them. My two little monsters running around like crazy while the big monster laughed at them because he already had all the eggs spotted. Anthony would always give a third to each of the other two so that they all had the same amount. He was always a good sport. He didn't care about the eggs. I always gave him the dollar for the prize egg. He was older I figured he needed it. Then I remarried and Had a new Husband and two more children and Easter began to be another holiday that had to split between houses. And
I worried about what history that was bringing to my five children. We always tried to have something special with all of them on holidays and time marched on for us too.

All of my Children are grown now.. All five live somewhere else.I had one Grandson here this week-end with Me. Mason. Dave hid the eggs for Mason. Mason said Grand-daddy hid them too easy so he was going to hide them for us. We did our best not to just bend over and pick them up since they were in plain sight. Pretending we didn't see them. He was very excited that he was a better hider than Grand- daddy. Then came my turn to hide them. I walked around carefully looking for the kind of places we would find them when we were small. The kind of places My Daddy or my Brother Frank Might hide them. I laughed as they ran around looking in all the places they had already hidden them. They managed to stumble over all but four of them. I kept telling them. " I can see them from here." Finally Mason came and stood by me and looked around high and low and spotted one sitting carefully way up on a tree limb. He then spotted the two in the goldfish's waterfall. I laughed as they walked and re-walked all over this yard searching for the one egg. Finally after they had both gave up and were about to go inside I walked over to a tree stump sitting in the middle of a flower bed and next to the stump sitting in a yellow daffodil was the final bright yellow egg. I picked it up and tossed it to Mason. He said I was the very best egg hider this year. And I was happy because even though we don't always see it Mason and the other children are growing up And time still marches on.

Times Change. Families change. Lives Change. Holiday traditions change. My Easter's now are usually spent Just me and Dave here at home. This year for a change we had Mason here. We had fun with him like we haven't had in a while. Our own children Out grew Holidays Early. When children have to split Holidays in two houses that happens. It's no one's Fault It just happens. But We always made holidays special in our house. We dyed eggs even if it would be too late Easter to hide them when they all came home. We could hide them Monday. Fun is important to children. I do remember some times that I was in trouble as a child but Most of all I remember the fun times. So try as often as you can to have fun with a child. Who knows you might even enjoy yourself.. And better yet the child might with a grin and a hug declare you to be the best hider of the day! And Even time can't march faster than good memories. Time can't erase the loving history you build with a child!
Happy Easter!!
Patsy

New Shoes

"If the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?"- Gloria Steinem

Yesterday I talked about Friday before Easter when I was a child.. Good Friday.. This morning I will talk about Saturday before Easter in our Childhood home. Especially our Easter shoes.
Saturday before Easter Sunday was always a busy day. There were heads to be washed and Half of those had to have bobby pin curls. The new clothes that Mama and Daddy had been paying on for a few weeks would have been already picked up from lay- away and They would be hanging on doorways awaiting Mama's final inspection. We would not have a wrinkle or smudge between us Come Easter Morning when we filled an entire pew at Our country Church.
We always ; with out fail ; got new shoes twice every year in our family. We got Loafers every year when school started. We got those in groups of two each Friday for several weeks before School started for the fall. We didn't get other shoes very often. Maybe a pair of flip flops for the beach or Camping. We did get sneakers once we were old enough to have Physical education in school. That was around the sixth grade for me. But Every year on the Saturday before Easter we would all get new shoes. Dress shoes that would be worn for Church and to school for special days like chorus concerts or maybe an induction into a club or something. You didn't wear dress shoes every day.. you would mess them up. Scuff them or scratch them. Patent Leather was easy to ruin. And if you scratched them you would have to rub them with Cold Biscuits. Naturally you didn't dare ruin your Dress shoes.
One Main street there was a shoe store. Not like today's shoe stores really Because back then there was a person there to fit your feet and try shoes on you till he was satisfied that they fit. Then you would be sent to walk up and down the aisle so that Him and Daddy could make sure they weren't rubbing and would never cause a blister. Then it was back to the stool so Mr. Haines could mash on the toe to show how much growing room you had. Growing room was important because you had to wear those shoes for a whole year. They had to fit for that whole year. you just had to have growing room at the toe. One Easter Saturday in Particular I remember that we had all went to town. We were all lined up trying to pick out shoes for Mr. Haines to fit for us. Mary always had a very Narrow foot and so she was hard to fit. I on the other hand Had a perfectly normal foot and was always easy to fit. I had picked out a shoe that even I knew would never fit.. I was hoping though. Hoping that Mr. Haines Could do magic and make it fit me. I didn't like the shoe any more than I did any of the others but This pair had a doll to come with them and I sure wanted her. She was a doll from some country far away and I loved all dolls.
When It was my turn I stepped up to the stool and sat down calmly straightening my skirt and smiling my best smile at Mr. Haines as I lifted my foot to the fitting step in front of me. Then I handed him the tiny shoe I had chosen. He smiled and shook his head no as he got up and went to the shelf behind him. He came back with a pair that naturally were a perfect fit. He was very good at his Job. I was about to raise a fuss but just then I caught Daddy's eye and knew a fuss wasn't a very good idea right then. I took my unwanted shoes and moved to stand over by the door waiting as the others were fitted. I watched people through the glass as they walked up and down the short Main street. I was almost over the whole doll issue till I saw Mary coming with her shoes. She had the shoes I wanted. She, who I was certain, was way too old for dolls, had my shoes and my doll. I was furious. I was mad with Mr Haines because he had tricked me . I was certain that he had. I was mad with Mary because I knew she had chosen my shoes for spite. I was just mad at the world. I was even mad with my feet for being too big to get me a doll. I pouted as daddy paid for all those shoes. I pouted all the way home in the car squeezed in between Frank and Mary in the back seat. I pouted all the way to my bedroom where I tossed the shoe box to the bed and flopped down beside it. Finally I heard Mama coming toward my room. She would be handing out the socks that she had bought at the dime store while daddy was getting us all fitted for New Easter shoes. She would have socks to match every one's clothes and she would look at everything together to make sure we were all ready for the Easter Morning Services. I lifted my Shoe box lid and There laying in the box along with My black, patent leather, Sunday shoes was a little doll from Spain. Mr. Haines had surprised me. Mr. Haines had realized that I knew the shoe wouldn't fit. But he had given me a doll anyway. Mama opened my door to a smiling happy girl and was proud that they had again got all of us pulled together one more time.. Just in time for Easter. And the next morning we would all eight be
Pictures of perfection sitting on our pew in our new Easter clothes and Our New Good shoes.
Patsy