[Ansteorra] Re: [ANST] re: walking authentically

[Morgan Cain]

> Personally, I find that walking 'authentically' means adjusting myself to
> the footwear.  The complaints I've heard about "period shoes" tend to be
> based on the fact that the wearer won't or can't adjust to the demands of
> the footwear, and so they wind up fighting their shoes and their feet
hurt.
>
> Plain medieval shoes are much like walking barefoot.  Most modern people
> are used to not only having a slightly raised heel (which messes with the
> internal muscles of the shoe, causing some to develop that wouldn't, and
> others to atrophy), but also having padding and protection.  If you will
> watch people walking, A lot of them tend to slam their heels into the
> ground.  They also don't watch where they are walking.  Someone walking
> barefoot is more likely to -place- their heel on the ground, and step
> around things like sharp glass and rocks.

I agree with Diarmaid (except that I think he meant to say "muscles of the
FOOT"), in part because I have a grandmother who has worn HIGH heels for so
long that she can no longer set her foot flat on the ground.  Her hamstring
and muscles of the leg and foot have her permanently on tippy-toe.

On the other hand, I walk barefoot most of the time; I actually prefer it.
I make sure to have boots on when at Wars if I will be working around the
battles, otherwise it's sandals or barefoot, and I have to remember to slip
on my shoes when walking around at work.  Many people are surprised that I
can walk barefoot so easily, but if you are accustomed to it, it's not a
problem.

Diarmaid is right - they key to many persons' complaints about walking in
medieval shoes, and the usual accommodation they make, is not being
accustomed to having a soft sole.  You do need to worry about stones in the
way, etc., when wearing soft soles, because you DO feel them.

And slightly aside of this, I have a friend whose wife made him a "Henry
VIII" outfit, and he told us that the reason you always see men of that
period in the particular feet-apart, hands-on-hips stance is because it is
the only comfortable way to stand; the weight of the garments throw you
off-balance otherwise.

                                            ----= Morgan


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and
I'm not sure about the former."                 ---=  Albert Einstein