My personal history of flip-flop wearing
For the purpose of my own entertainment and self-mythologizing, I will now tell my personal history of flip-flop wearing.
The most wonderfully comfortable pair of flip flops I ever owned was actually a $1.99 pair from Walgreens. Back in the summer of 2001, I had bought two pairs from Old Navy and hated them because they were so thin they gave me shin splints. I was in Walgreens and saw that they had a somewhat thick-soled pair of flip flops so I bought them. They turned out to be amazingly comfortable and I stuck with them.
Ex-girlfriend Jackie and I were walking along the promenade in Santa Monica in October of 2001 when I started to take a step. As I lifted my foot, she accidentally stepped on the sole of my flip-flop beneath my foot, and as I continued to raise my foot, I tore the straps right out of the sandal. They were RUINED.
Unfortunately, since we were on the Santa Monica promenade, there was no cheap place to buy flip-flops. I had become quite addicted to having my feet open to the elements, so my only option was to buy some expensive sandals. This was my introduction to Birkenstocks. I bought a pair and eventually grew to like them quite a bit. For the next four years, I would wear only Birkenstocks.
In March of 2005, the city of Lincoln attempted to assemble the property between 17th and 18th streets and P and Q for the purposes of building a new hotel for John Q Hammons. Several business resisted the move, and the issue of whether or not the city would use eminent domain became a hot debate topic. I watched the hours and hours of testimony at the city council meeting, and I specifically recalled the owner of the sandals store on Q Street testifying in favor of using eminent domain to displace one business for another private business’ benefit. Although I had bought my previous replacement pair of Birkenstocks there two years before, at that moment, I declared I would not purchase my next pair from that store.
Sara and I were in San Diego a few weeks later. We were wandering through Nordstrom’s and she tried on a pair of Reef flip-flops. She was immediately in love with them and wouldn’t stop talking about how comfortable they were. Before we left the store, she convinced me to go try on a pair and if I liked them, she would buy them for me because they were just that awesome, so I did. I thought she was just a little crazy to speak so highly of a pair of flip-flops, but as soon as I put them on, I felt it too.
June 14th, 2007 at 10:40 am
I love sandals as well. I never wore sandals much before I meet my wife but she turned em on to them and know during the spring, summer and fall that is all I wear on my feet.