Have you ever heard a story that changed your behavior for life? I have, and noticed it this morning when I shook out some shoes that were in my closet before putting them on. It struck me I have been doing this most of my life, instinctively and unquestionably. I do that from a story my father told me when I was five and on a camping trip up in Maine (which was a long time ago!) I have remembered the story ever since and do not put on a pair of shoes/boots without making sure nothing is in them, doesn’t matter if they are a pair of muddy boots sitting on the covered porch overnight or dress boots in the closet with shoe trees in them.
My father was a Marine officer-in after Korea and got out in ‘63. At some point in the early 60’s he found himself in west Africa, either the Belgian or French Congo, with his unit charged with retrieving some Westerners and Nuns from the threat of Simbas and other locals who had developed a thirst for killing.
Story goes, and I can remember this like yesterday:
The Marines set up their perimeter and prepare to overnight in thick jungle, and while they hack down some trees to set up mortar positions, there is very thick overhead. At some point in the evening, preparing for a watch change, one of the young Marines puts his boots on without “shaking it out” first, and promptly gets bit by a poisonous centipede. The Marines spent the rest of the night hacking down the jungle, the wounded guy screaming the entire time, to clear a large enough area to land a helicopter the next morning.
I’m five in the deep Maine woods, the trees so thick I can’t see the stars, hearing that Marine scream all night as my father tells the story.
I shake my boots/shoes out EVERYTiME ever since. Thanks Dad!
Spidersix
My father was a Marine officer-in after Korea and got out in ‘63. At some point in the early 60’s he found himself in west Africa, either the Belgian or French Congo, with his unit charged with retrieving some Westerners and Nuns from the threat of Simbas and other locals who had developed a thirst for killing.
Story goes, and I can remember this like yesterday:
The Marines set up their perimeter and prepare to overnight in thick jungle, and while they hack down some trees to set up mortar positions, there is very thick overhead. At some point in the evening, preparing for a watch change, one of the young Marines puts his boots on without “shaking it out” first, and promptly gets bit by a poisonous centipede. The Marines spent the rest of the night hacking down the jungle, the wounded guy screaming the entire time, to clear a large enough area to land a helicopter the next morning.
I’m five in the deep Maine woods, the trees so thick I can’t see the stars, hearing that Marine scream all night as my father tells the story.
I shake my boots/shoes out EVERYTiME ever since. Thanks Dad!
Spidersix
