Right Foot Forward

A Thirty Year Old Red Canvas Shoe with leather sole, handmade for a son curious about the world, gleefully learning to step into it, right foot forward. Whereabouts of left shoe: unknown. In five thousand years or so, what will scientists determine from such a specimen, should they unearth it? Will they recognize the love sewn into the sole? Will they be able to analyze particles of dust and dirt and determine where the small feet had roamed? Will they know the young explorer had put his best foot forward?
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Apparently, archaeologists have recently discovered the oldest leather shoe in a pit in Armenia. Researchers reported the news in the Journal of the Library of Science, and NPR carried the story today (http://n.pr/b9EBOB ). The shoe is estimated to be over 5,500 years old, sewn of one piece of leather, laced up the heel and from the toe to the ankle along the top of the shoe. The photos show the shoe stuffed with grasses. Had the wearer of this shoe gotten caught in the rain? Had he or she been puddle jumping? Had the shoe been stuffed with grass to keep its form as the leather dried near the fire in the cave all those years ago? And where is the other shoe? The one found is for the right foot.

The archaeologist quoted in the story is associated with University College Cork of Cork, Ireland. He compares the leather shoe to Irish "pampooties," a similar version of the same shoe design that was worn through the mid Twentieth Century by folks living on the Aran Islands just off the west coast of Ireland and by peoples across Europe in all kinds of climes. "Pampooties." What a great word! My daughter and I leave for an Ireland exploration in just a few days. We've packed our brand new Keen pampooties for hill walking and cliff hugging jaunts along the coastline.