House Shoes

This is my $1.50 Wal-Mart clearance special that seems to be a must have for a tile ridden home. As I put them on this morning to race around sterilizing and making bottles, feeding the older girls breakfast, switching a load of forgotten-soon to be molding towels (don't judge me), and sipping at a too hot for a McDonald's styrofoam cup of coffee, I think of others who have adorned "house shoes" before me. My first memory of them was when I was a little girl and my Great Grandma Chapman (who died at 90something, she always lied about her age so I'm really not sure how old she was-and had 1 hair left on her wig ridden head-oh if I could be so lucky) was in the tile kitchen cooking up bacon for my pipe toting great-grandpa and all 5 of us in the Cade clan. It was a small kitchen and her feet were so tiny in those house shoes, I could see her bunions (of which she would pay us kids a nickel if we would rub them, that was obviously how I developed my issue with germs). I remember her toothless grin before she put her teeth in, yes she was bald and toothless....my future looks so very bright.....and said "Good Morning Susie, do you want some bacon and eggs this morning?" You know I did....especially before I had to rub those toes...a nickel went a long way in the late 70's!
My other fond experience with the concept of house shoes is my girlfriend Annie. She also had a tile ridden home and I could never figure out why she would be wearing these funky slipperish things all day and not have her feet hurt. She wore them when she hosted bunco, she wore them when she hosted our "wannabe weight watchers meetings", she slipped out of them when I kidnapped her for a Denny's night in the middle of her last minute packing the night before she was to leave on a major vacation. Her house shoes accompanied her in all her many chores and I especially remember my surprise as she took her huge garbage bag out in them (mine is left for my burly hubby to take care of, but she did her own).
So, these simple, cheapo shoes that I never knew I needed have now become my reminder of a couple extraordinary women I've had the pleasure of spending time with and now I have my own. There's pressure to perform in them. There are legacies to be left behind in them (as I tripped over them in my soon to be 7 year olds room this morning). I hope I can live up to my own expectations of what a house shoe adorning woman should be. A simple pair of slippers...or are they?