Barefoot, both ways, across the snow.

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I am not sure if this fabled tale would be something other areas of the world would have heard from their own grandparents. I do know, atleast as it relates to the Southern States, that many of us would have heard this told to us atleast once. It's story was a means for us to appreciate not only where we came from, but what we had as well. Whether the lot of our parentage had indeed suffered these conditions, is yet to be determined. I, for one, won't be the person to ask if these tales are false or true. It is with the endeavor to re-create my own, or that of my families memories, that I discuss this here now. I had been thinking of what next to write here, as I am in a creative mood, when this came to my mind. I saw the creek in which my grandfather crossed for school with my own eyes. It lay behind my great grandmother's home, up the mountainside. Now, we did not re-create the path he took, but he did take me as far as the creek, and a little ways past. He did this each time I asked to see it, which was nearly every visit we made to the mountains. I can still see the stream in my mind's eye, and how treacherous the landscape truly was. There was plenty of light to shine down, even though it was amongst many trees. The foliage was always brilliant, no matter the season we chose to venture these woods. My family still owns the house that my great grandmother lived. Now a great uncle lives there, though we've not visited the place since before my great grandmother's passing. It's been more than 16 years since then. No other story about worn shoes, or no shoes whatsoever was ever told. There was no real reasoning given for why he wore no shoes. Was it that he had the shoes, but couldn't have them damaged as they were his church shoes? This was never explained, and mattered not for the moral of these tales. Whether or not it was true that he trekked this way each day, or if it were just convenient landscape for such a tale? Either way, I'll cherish these memories for what they are.