slippers

We must have had slippers when we were children, but although I remember so much of my childhood, even my early days, I don’t remember wearing slippers, but we must have done. In fact I don’t remember mum wearing slippers either, but she would have done, and they would have been the sort with a proper sole so she could run out and put the washing on theine, or run out and take it in. I remember dad had some; they were maroon leather, the sort with no back so you could just slip them on. So why don’t I remember my slippers? I remember my summer sandals, I remember my winter lace-ups, I remember my wellies, I remember various pairs I had when I was older, but all shoes and boots, no slippers.

By slippers I mean the soft indoor shoes that people where about the house, not slippers as in the sort of slippers Cinderella wore. Wikipedia has a nice little definition: Slippers are light footwear that are easy to put on and off and are intended to be worn indoors, particularly at home. They provide comfort and protection for the feet when walking indoors.

Mostly I don’t wear anything on my feet indoors, and in fact when I go to put the washing out I go out bare foot across the paving slabs to the washing line. Even when it’s wet I go out barefoot, on tip-toe, unless it is really, really wet, then I put on whatever pair of shoes is nearest. In the winter I keep my socks on, and in the past I have had slippers, or slipper socks, but my feet get too hot, or sometimes just one foot gets hot so I take off just one slipper. My husband always wears slippers in the house, always; as soon as he gets up in the morning the slippers go on, and as soon as he arrives back in the house when he’s been outside, then shoes off, slippers on. I’m sure I bought the children slippers when they were young, I must have done, but it’s another blank. I think my son just keeps his socks on now, daughter has slippers… I think.

Like many people I’ve been brushing up on foreign languages I already know, and starting to learn a couple of new ones, so how do slippers translate? In French they are pantoufles, similar in Italian as pantofole which is not a bit like Latin soleas, in German they are Hausschuhe, and I guess my Dutch friends call them… well, apparently they also call them slippers! At the moment I am learning Danish and Finnish; in Danish they are hjemmesko – house-shoes, and in Finnish, tossut.

My featured image shows me and my sister wearing our party shoes, which may be described as slippers!