article by La-ong

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A Shoe Story

I’ve been told this story about my grandmother by my mum.

About 40 years ago, before I was born, my grandmother lived in a village in North-Eastern Thailand. People in this village are farmers, the same as my grandmother, and most people in the village didn’t wear shoes, because working on the land and in the fields was easier without them.

Then one day, she came to visit my parents in the city of Bangkok, still not wearing shoes. When my mum saw my grandmother without shoes, she took her right away to buy some. Each shoe was made up of two sections. That was the first time that Grandmother ever wore shoes.

From the shoe shop to my mum’s house was about half a mile, so my mum decided to walk back home. But the road from Bangkok was very busy, with many cars and lots of people walking. That was so different to village life that it mesmerised my grandmother, on this, her first visit to the city.

Once they were home, my mum realised that my grandmother had lost part of her shoe. Grandmother hadn’t noticed because she was used to walking around the village without shoes. My mum walked back along the road and found the missing part of the shoe.

When she got home, my grandmother said to her, “Just keep the shoes here, as I won’t need them when I return to the village.” So the shoes stayed in my mum’s house for Grandmother whenever she came to visit.

La-ong McGuinness

[Uddingston  ESOL Group]

Webmaster replies

I suppose that they are all wearing designer trainers in the village these days.  Or, do the older people still hang on to their traditional ways?

Let me know.

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