Muddy Shoes

One of my favorite memories of a long-ago childhood is playing in the mud. On an early warm spring day, it rained long and hard on our small farm. At the bottom of one field, the eroded soil had created a thick mud about a foot deep. Mother was very sad, but my siblings and I were quite happy. We took our shoes off, rolled up our pants, and walked in. Mud always feels so good as it squeezes between the toes!

It's been raining in KC and the backyard of one of my children's houses contains a glorious future playground area--(now known as a mud pit!). The 2-year old likes to walk the small wood wall and can keep her balance most of the time. I held her hand yesterday to make sure she didn't fall into the watery areas.

Nevertheless, she let go of my hand and stepped into what looked like a fairly dry area. Wrong! Within several steps the thick brownish glue had attached itself firmly to two new white shoes. I lifted her out (after she had walked through more mud) and we went back to the porch to clean the shoes.

A second pair of muddy shoes was by the stairs--this pair with dried mud. I cleaned both pair with a paring knife, a copper grill brush, and an old toothbrush. The grill brush works great on dry mud, after you scrape off the big pieces. But now, another 10 min was needed to handwash the white socks of the traveling two-year old while I was cleaning the shoes. I should have remembered to give her the barefoot experience of mud between the toes!