Artsy boots

Author – Zhang Ronghui

A while ago I was feeling stressed at work and wishing to try something new, so I registered for drawing lessons at my neighbourhood’s community centre, on Saturdays.
In the first lesson I realized that my neighbour from my same apartment building was also there, and since then we decided to carpool to the community centre and became friends.
One Saturday it was my turn to drive. We got there and the instructor started arranging on the table the usual items to draw: oranges, a bottle, and a china bowl. The instructor, a man in his sixties, was patient and very technically accomplished, although pretty dull in terms of choosing objects for our still-life drawing, always the very same. Someone timidly asked if we could perhaps draw something else, but the room where we were seemed to lack anything other than more bottles, tables, and an old collapsible ladder. Someone else then suggested:
-What about drawing a back pack, or pair of shoes or boots?
We all looked around. nobody had a backpack, and what we saw lots was of flip-flops, boring dad-sneakers, and even a pair of uggs. I was wearing a pair of beaten New Balance sneakers, but it was immediately evident that the only one there wearing footwear with an interesting shape was my fried, who had on a pair of old, but good-quality leather boots. As all stares fell on his feet, he said:
-Umm… Sure, we can draw my boots.
He took them off and put them on the table, then going back behind his easel to stand in his light gray socks. The boots turned indeed to be interesting to draw, full of intricate detail: the pattern on the soles, the criss-cross of the laces, the creases on the old leather.
At some point someone knocked on the door as the instructor was away in the bathroom, and my friend went to get it. It was the group next door; they needed to borrow a table. The tables were heavy, so my friend helped them to move it, but what he did not realize is that the floor in the other classroom had been recently mopped, and rather sloppily.
When he came back he said to me: “Oh man, the floor in that classroom was seriously wet” as he proceeded to take off his damp socks and put them in his art supplies bag, standing on his bare feet for the rest of the session.
The boots turned out to be a very engaging drawing subject, because when the session was done, many people were not yet finished. After some discussion, my friend said “You know what? You can give them back to me next Saturday.”
We got on my car, I shod and he barefoot, and on the ride back home he got a phone call. My friend is Romanian and he had been waiting for the longest time for the release of a document from his consulate to complete his application for his residence permit here in Canada. The document had just been finally released, and my friend was desperate to complete his application as soon as possible. He said:
-I know it is a bit much to ask, but would you drive me downtown?
I said I would, and then he added;
-Also, ummm, I can’t show up at the consulate like this. I’m sorry to ask this, but can I borrow your shoes and socks?
When we arrived I parked on the street to drop him off at the consulate, and took off my socks and shoes, which he immediately put on. “I really owe you one,” he said as he left.
He told me not to wait for him–the waiting time could be really long—so I drove home. I had never driven barefoot: the pedals felt funny and alien. I parked in my lot, but instead of heading home I took a walk in the park nearby. It was very early fall, the afternoon was sunny and gorgeous, and the damp lawn felt soothing on my bare feet.

PE lessons learned

Author – Andy

Back in my school days me and my two mates would bunk off school during PE on Thursday afternoons. We hated playing football or rugby outdoors in Winter so we always had an excuse of forgetting our PE kit. The teacher would just send us to the sports hall to sit on the benches as it was too cold to stand idle beside the pitch. But we never went, as our classmates headed outdoors we would sneak out of school not only missing PE but double maths in last period too. This went on for weeks until we got caught sneaking out, our PE teacher escorted us to the sports hall were we took off our shoes as they weren’t allowed on the gym floor but instead of keeping them he took them from us and locked them in the equipment cupboard. Now you can’t sneak out he said leaving us standing in our socks. After PE we waited outside the equipment cupboard to get our shoes. The teacher arrived when breaktime had ended and said he’d forgotton about us, he then claimed to not have the cupboard key and told us to return after last period. We complained that we could not go to our next lesson without our shoes but he shrugged his shoulders and walked off.
We went to maths missing our shoes and the class laughed as they stared at our socked feet. After the bell we went to the equipment cupboard, we stood about for 20 minutes worrying the teacher had forgotton again and we would have to walk home in our socks. But he eventually arrived and unlocked the cupboard, as we put on our shoes he told us not to forget our PE kit next time. We didn’t forget, we had learned our lesson.

Cleat-less

Author – Irsocks

This happened at work during Halloween. We were allowed to wear costumes to work. John came dressed as a college baseball player. He had the complete costume including the glove. I found out later that it was not a costume. It was his uniform from when he played for a college team. He wore the cap, jersey, pants, long baseball socks, and the cleats. Well he made one mistake in that he did not bring any clothes or shoes to change into. After a few hours, I guess those cleats started to hurt because he was having to go back and forth to the copier and file room. At one point he must have decided to give his feet some relief. He didn’t notice me coming around the corner. He was in his baseball socks without the cleats. He hurried up and went back to his desk. I could tell he was a little embarrassed. I quickly told him that cleats can be uncomfortable and I could not have worn them as long as he did.
It was almost time to go. When i passed his cubicle he appeared to be looking for something. He had a panicked look on his face. Everyone started leaving except for him. He never stayed late. I walked over to him and asked if there was anything wrong. He was too embarrassed to say anything. When he realized that I was not going anywhere, he finally broke down and said that he had taken his cleats off and left them under his desk, but they were not there now. He turned his chair towards me to show me that he was still in his baseball socks even wiggling his toes for more proof.
I told him don’t worry and that I would help him find his shoes. We looked around his cubicle again and the ones next to it. No cleats. I thought to myself this seems familiar. I told him to follow me. I think I know where they are located. I told him that Rick was a prankster and had probably saw his cleats under his desk and took them as a joke. I told him not to worry because Rick had did the same to me a few time. Luckily for him I had a key to the supply room. I unlocked the door and he followed me in not seeing his cleats. I said they are probably behind the supply shelf. Sure enough I pulled a pair of green and white Adidas baseball cleats from behind the shelf. I handed them to him and he immediately put them on his feet. He said he would never do that again.

That’s my shoe

Author – Irsocks

I was enjoying the sun on my face and the slightly cool breeze while sitting on the old bleachers. I was just about to catch a nap when this guy appeared out of nowhere and plopped down beside me. He said would you look at that. That is amazing. I didn’t give him time to tell me what. I said excuse me I am trying to enjoy some me time. I slid over away away from him. Obviously he didn’t get the hint because he slid over next to me and said I just came to get the other shoe.
Now I was confused and mad. I said what other shoe to which he showed me the shoe in his hidden hand. It looked like my shoe. I looked down to find that my left Osiris NYC 83 was missing. my white Hanes sock was looking back up at me. I asked if that was my shoe and how did you get it. Give me back my shoe I demanded. He said no I kind of wanted it. I moved closer to grab my shoe, but he just held it out of reach. I said I want my shoe back. That is my shoe. He still would not hand it over and told me to take his shoe.
He then slipped his right black and white checkerboard Vans slipon off and threw it at me. After I got hit with his shoe, I watched him run away with my shoe stopping only long enough to put it on his blue heel and toe white sock foot. I couldn’t believe it. How did he get my shoe without me noticing it. Now i was stuck with my left sock foot, my right Osiris hightop, and his left Vans shoe. I had no choice but to put his right shoe on my left foot.
A few minutes later I felt someone tugging on my fight foot. I looked under the bleachers and it was the same guy again. I said what are you doing now. He said I need the other shoe. He managed to grab my leg and bend it back enough and get my foot under the bleacher. I could doing nothing to stop him from pulling my other Osiris from my foot. Once again I had to watch as he ran from under the bleachers pausing long enough to slip his shoe off and slip mine on. He threw his shoe over his shoulder and it landed on the bottom bleacher. I had no choice but to put that one on as well.
I thought to myself that this could not get any worse. Why did I say that. I saw a guy coming towards me. He looked innocent enough until I noticed that he didn’t have on any shoes. His socks were flopping loosely on his feet and the bottoms were dirty. He sat down next to me and said those are my shoes. I said what. He said those shoes on your feet are my shoes and I want them back. No way was he getting those shoes off my feet. Boy was I wrong. As I stepped down to leave, he tripped me making me fall face first to the ground. Before I could get back up, he snatched the shoes from my feet. I watched as he walked off stopping just long enough to slip his floppy dirty sock feet into the Vans. Not only were my shoes stolen, but the thief’s shoes were stolen too.

Well played D.C.

Author – Irsocks

My friends and I were left with little to do because of the lockdown. We couldn’t go anywhere or do anything outside, so we decided to play video games. After a while even that was boring. After eating all the snacks Logan got an idea. He said to make things interesting we would have a tournament to see who could win more matches in the new Mortal Kombat game. He knew I loved that game and that I would not say no. Both he and Brady were grinning when they looked at me. I had to agree to play before he would tell me the rules. I reluctantly agreed.
The rules were simple. Each person would play until they were barefoot. They could tell that I didn’t follow. Logan said after each match the winner would keep playing while the loser had to toss one shoe outside. After both shoes were gone, the loser would have to throw one sock outside. The game would end when two players were barefoot. I had the most to lose because my DC Versaflex MGs were newer. Logan wasn’t really concerned about his boots, and Brady’s Adidas NMDs were older. The bad part was that it was raining outside, so the losers stuff would get soaked.
Logan played Brady and lost. Logan slipped off his left boot revealing his white Hanes crew sock with gray heel and toe. He opened the front door and tossed it out. Brady lost to me to my relief. Brady took his right sneaker off and tossed it outside. He plopped down on the couch propping up his black no show sock with red heel and toe. I was getting over confident because both Logan and Brady had lost again. Now they were both in their socks shoeless.
I still had both my sneakers. I didn’t realize it had stopped raining. Logan said why do we make this more interesting. The next matches the loser has to toss both out instead of just one. I was pumped up now because I was winning. We all agreed. This time I lost to Logan. I was hesitant to lose both my shoes. Logan and Brady looked at me and pointed to the front door. I opened the door and felt a little better that it had stopped raining. I slipped both sneakers off and placed them just outside the door. I walked back into the room in my white DC socks with black heels and toes.
I was going to wipe the smirks off their faces. After a few more matches I came out victorious. Both Logan and Brady were now barefoot and I had still had both socks on. Little did I know my victory was short lived. They left. When I finally went out to claim my sneakers, they were gone. Not only did Logan and Brady get their sneakers and socks, they took mine as well. That is when I realized that I had been played.

Well played B.C.

Author – Irsocks

I decided to stop and take a rest in the park on the bench facing the large grassy area. Since no one was around, I thought I would take a quick nap. I untied and loosened the laces on my DC E Tribeka sneakers to let my royal blue elite sock feet breathe. I guess I was a little more tired than I thought because when I woke up there were some guys playing football in the grass. As I watched, something was odd about their game. For some reason the football looked oddly like a sneaker instead of a ball. I shrugged it off until I noticed that there was only one guy chasing the ball and everyone else was throwing it to each other. The one guy would run towards the person who had the ball.
I realized they were not playing football when I noticed the guy chasing the ball only had on one sneaker. His white sock was getting dirty. The football was really the guy’s sneaker they had taken and was playing keep away with it. I felt kind of bad for the guy. I continued watching to see if they would give him his sneaker back.
After what seemed like hours they decided to take pity on the guy and threw his sneaker to the ground. They all walked away. His sneaker landed near the sidewalk close to me. Before he picked it up, I noticed that it was the same as mine. After he picked it up, put it back on, and tied the laces, he said to me, “Thanks for the game.” Before I could tell him he had nice sneakers, he ran towards the other guys.
I was so into their game that I did not realize that I was shoeless. I reached down to tie my shoes only to see my royal blue elite socks staring back at me. I wiggled my toes just to make sure I was really shoeless. I hesitated a few minutes trying to figure out how it had happened. My brain started working again. I guess I was so out of it that I had not woke up when they had taken my sneakers off my feet. The guy had thanked me for the game because it had been my sneaker that they were throwing around and not his. I had to do the walk of shame home sneakerless in my socks for all to see because I had stopped to take a nap.

First snow

Author – Jeff

After days of being cooped up in my flat the first snowfall of the year gave me the encouragement I needed to go out for a walk, on the estate I lived on there was an inch or so of snow but in the open countryside beyond it was bound to be much deeper. I had on my warm Adidas coat with a hoodie underneath , trackies tucked into my yellow footie socks and white Adidas trainers size 11. As I came over a slight rise three lads came in sight and paying no attention I walked on my way. A snowball hit me square on the back of the head and I swung round to find myself facing the three lads who had closed up to where I was, Give us your phone idiot the younger guy yelled, I’ve not got one on me mate Ive just come out for a walk and brought nothing with me, We’ve heard that before lads havn’t we lads search him propper. Take off his coat so we can see what we are doing. Every pocket was carefully searched and my trainers were pulled off to check there was no cash inside, One lad put on my coat and picked up my trainers, I guessed I had seen the last of them, they were not pleased there was nothing they could steal except the trainers and coat, I was not even wearing a watch. Please lads, I begged, let me go you have got all I have, very nearly said the lad, give us the hoodie and we might let you go, I slowly pulled off the hoodie leaving me in vest trackies boxers and socks and that’s what I had on running the 2 miles to home.