Who's got an odd pair of shoes?
Pam continues her blog about Freegle, recycling, repair and that sort of thing.
Many years ago, before kerbside collection became a thing, I was loading the boot of my car with bags of waste paper and bottles and tins to take to the then, nearest recycling point nine miles away in Penrith. A neighbour’s friend, very smart, up from the city for a few days, asked me what I was doing. When I told her, she was all lol, as they say and oh, I don’t bother with that sort of thing. Obviously, I was a bit odd. But time marches on does it not and I wonder what she makes of it all now this save the planet business.
Does she dutifully put out her recycling, grudgingly thinking of me perhaps as some kind of precursor to this extra household job she has to perform or is she an eco-warrior, spurred on by her children, for whom the future holds untold concerns. Or, harder to believe, does she still not bother? Whatever she’s up to, it’s a journey we’re all on, like it or not, agreed or not, all roads will lead to Rome.
My husband recently proved the point. A known hoarder, with very little thought beyond it might come in useful someday, I have over the years, surreptitiously sneaked items away to charity shops, jumble sales and the like but more often as not to the refuse bin to avoid the inevitable reality of yet another dust collection point.
But he’s not a man to be trifled with. In response he has become increasingly more skilful at hiding stuff and so had great pleasure recently in confronting me with a pair of, as he put it, perfectly good shoes that had I known of them individually, would have been consigned (individually) to the rubbish bag as useless some time back.
Because they were not a pair in the usual sense. I mean they were a left and right foot; they were both brown, their soles were intact, but they were not of the same design. A step too far? Well, he’d been wearing them all day and I hadn’t noticed.
So, it’s one up to him for now…
Although it did get me thinking about footwear and what we can do with odd shoes, which, shh, I do actually have in my own wardrobe… and yes, it’s far too good a one to throw out.
Useful Websites:
Joe’s Odd Shoes – a community founded by Jo O'Callaghan, who lost a leg to complex regional pain syndrome, a condition which also makes it too painful to wear a prosthetic limb. https://www.facebook.com/groups/OddShoesJo/
