I Wear Flip Flops* OR 346/365

I never wore flip flops growing up. I remember owning Jelly Shoes for a summer or two, but on the whole, I was much more of a sneakers person. I have clear memories of a purple pair of Velcro shoes circa first grade, canvas high tops circa third grade, and imitation Keds in the fifth and sixth grades (which got puff-painted to snazz them up when they started to look worn—c’mon, you know you did it, too!).

Enter junior high and the era of Doc Martens. No, I never had actual Doc Martens (though I DID have an actual Club Monaco sweatshirt, but let’s save that for another post, shall we?). But I had the look-alikes. Ooh, and faux-suede shoes. Man, those were comfy. And more imitation Keds.

But no flip flops.

No sandals, even.

Yep, I was the kid with the sock tan every summer.

Around the eleventh grade (late, I know), I finally got the memo that sock tans look stupid, and decided that I needed to branch out into some sort of sandal wear. Thing is, I’m very particular about my footwear. I want my shoes to look good, feel comfortable, and match with more than one outfit. But I was not convinced that I wanted flip flops. I find it hard to walk around in shoes without a support around the back of the heel, and I was also convinced that I would have nothing but blisters between my toes. That being said, Velcro strap sandals were trendy at the time, and looked like a viable option. So in the summer after Grade 11, in a tiny little hamlet in BC, I bought my first pair of sandals.

And I loved them.

So for the next seven years, I wore this style of sandal in the summer. I think I went through 2-3 pairs; not entirely sure. Oh, wait—there were a few summers in university where I also wore Birkenstock-esque sandals for when I needed “fancy” summer footwear. Those rocked, too.

Then, in 2004, in a mud-fight with the Grade 5-6 class at the out-of-school care I was working at, a kid stepped on my sandal as I was running, and the strap popped irreparably apart from the sole. Time for new sandals.

As I was still in the process of looking for the perfect pair of new sandals, my friend SK was visiting from Arizona—a blessed state where people can wear sockless footwear some 300 days a year. Somewhere along the way, the topic of flip flops came up, and she encouraged me to try them. She reassured me that I may get blisters on the first day, but nothing more than that. She also reassured me that—even though she wasn’t entirely sure how—flip flops don’t fall off. So, with all this in mind, and with a tourist-necessitated trip to West Edmonton Mall, I entered Old Navy and bought my first pair of flip flops. They were only $5, so I figured if I ended up not liking them, I was really only losing $5.

In the end, it was more like, “best $5 spent ever!”

I did get a couple blisters the first few days.

But no, they didn’t fall off.

And they were so comfortable.

And pretty much matched with everything I wore.

AND I could wear them through water.

These things were great!

The pair I am donning in today’s photo are my third pair of Old Navy flip flops. This will be their last summer, as the foam is getting thin.

This pair of flip flips has crossed through the likes of garden dirt, playground turf, grassy field, puddle, and sand. They have been to the Rocky Mountains, Haiti, Nova Scotia, Florida, and the Caribbean. Most recently, they stood at the Western edge of Vancouver Island, where the only thing separating them from Japan was the Pacific Ocean.

Flip-flops, you rock my summers.

* It's a bit like deja-vu, isn't it?