You've Never Seen Danish Clogs Like This Before..

Last night, while adjusting sprinklers, I saw a sack buried in a garage cabinet. I knew what was in the sack, because I was the one that filled it.

It's where I stowed a pair of Danish clogs I bought back in 1985.

Everyone, or almost everyone, knows about clogs. Older (or ægte...) clogs have wooden souls and leather uppers and cut strips of leather from automobile tires hammered on the bottom. You can buy a pair of new clogs made from leather, but without the wood and/or car tires. I know people who love them, but for me, they've got to be made of wood. In fact, the Danish word for clog is Træsko, which translated means, tree shoe.

I believe, when I was living in Odense (birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen...), we lived next to a cobbler. We'd pass his shop everyday, and everyday I saw a pair of wooden souls hanging on his wall. One day, we went in to see if he could repair our walking around shoes (being an LDS missionary, you wear out a lot of shoes...). I asked him how much it would be for him to build me a pair using the wood souls he had.

He told me. I agreed, and a week or two later, I had my shoes.

It's been a while, but I believe there's an old Danish tradition of hanging a pair of clogs next to your front door. Not many did it so I may be wrong on the tradition part, but I think it was a thing. Since the shoes are not like regular clogs, I thought it would be cool to hang these shoes next to our front door once we had a house.

But when our house was finished, I put them in a red plastic bag and they ended up in the garage.

Sure, I could find a way to hang them on the outside wall next to our front door now, but I don't think I will. Maybe it's because I don't quite trust people and seeing something so unusual and unique, someone might want to see if those clogs fit them. Then they might want to see how different it is to walk in them. Then they might never come back.

I've never seen another pair of træsko like these before, and I may never seen another pair like them again. Who knows--maybe one day I'll start walking around with them. Then more people would see clogs they've never seen before.