However, when I am out and about in the general populace, most people I see tend to wear fairly ridiculous footwear. Flip-flops and ballet shoes in summer, high heeled boots in winter, shiny treadless shoes year round and the like.
People want to be comfortable and look fashionable and they drive most everywhere now-a-days. However, what happens if your car breaks down and you are on a back road or on the highway at night and you have to walk, even a few hundred metres in snow or rain for help. It happened to me. I was driving down a minor highway to my brother's bachelor party in Hamilton, in a misty rain, and my Lada Niva (yes, I owned a Lada) broke down. This was very early days, before commonality of cell phones, so I did not have one and as I was to learn later, this particular corridor had poor to non-existent service anyway. I had passed an old country gas station about a kilometre-and-a-half back. Thankfully, I was wearing a pair of Doc Martens. I grabbed a back-up jacket and ball-cap out of the back and hiked down to the gas station.
just like my old niva (courtesy autobonus.net)
I learnt about the spare clothes from my cousins on several occasions. I was with one cousin going to some family affair and we were dressed up. His car got a flat and it was pretty mucky out. He pulled out a pair of overalls from the trunk, threw them on and changed the tire and wiped up his hands with a couple shop clothes and we got to the event clean and neat.
On another occasion, I was canoeing with a different cousin (future cousin-in-law actually) and we were in the middle of this small lake and suddenly over the horizon we see a dark patch of cloud. This cousin was a smart cookie. He saw it for the bad news it was. Especially since the weather report for the day did not call for rain. We turned around and high-tailed it back to shore and his car. As I looked back from time to time - hey I was a kid, nine or ten - this dark mass grew and grew until the whole sky behind us was spooky-movie dark. Then we could see the rain moving across the water towards us. It was wild, I had never seen anything like that before, nor since. We were about a hundred metres from shore when it overtook us. Near instantly drenched we were. About fifteen metres out, my cousin hopped out of the canoe and pulled us in. He put me in the car, gave me a blanket and secured the canoe. When he got in the car he had a bag he pulled out of the trunk. There were various articles of clothing. He got a dry sweatshirt on me and a t-shirt on himself, we had some hot tea out of a thermos and then went home in this insane storm. As an aside, that is when I was hooked on canoeing and being prepared. I have to thank him someday.
Back to our regularly scheduled program...
When I got to the gas station, there was an elderly lady, with a moustache, staffing the counter. There was no pay phone, so I explained my situation and that I needed to call for a tow truck. She refused to let me use the business phone, I even offered to pay. There were two or three people there as well and either they could not, or would not help. So, with no help there, I left.
I headed back towards the Lada. What else could I do? When I got back to the SUV, I assessed my situation and checked out my surroundings. I had driven this route many times and knew there was some type of business about another kilometre-and-a-half up the road. When I got there, it was a hotel. A hotel that had closed down. So, I kept walking as I knew there was more up ahead. By this time it had begun to rain steadily. About two kilometres further on, I came across a shop, I do not remember what anymore, chainsaws maybe. They were very friendly and let me use their phone. I called CAA , someone was dispatched. The staff at the store apologised that they did not have a vehicle to bring my back to mine. No worries, I hoofed it back the three-plus kilometres to my Lada.
When I got there, there was a tow truck waiting for me. The guy had passed me and thought that when he saw me that I was probably not walking back here. Small chuckles. We put the Lada on his flatbed and I asked him to bring me back to my garage in Ottawa. He said he had gotten another call while on his way to me and asked if he could finish that first as he was the only tow truck in the area and he would be gone at least three hours bringing me back. Sure, who wants to be stuck in the rain by the side of the road.
He got me back to my garage and then took me home. He was a really nice guy. The garage fixed up my Lada and let me pick it up the next day on Saturday, early. They were really nice guys. Their garage was closed on Saturdays. I drove down to Hamilton, went to the stag and came home the next day without incident. The following week, I got a cell phone. I did learn subsequently, that a cell phone can be handy, but as I mentioned earlier, it is useless when service is poor to non-existent.
So, regardless of the footwear I have on and the clothes I am wearing, I always have a pair of sturdy footwear and a change of work clothes in my truck all the time. I would have had a lot more difficulty that day walking those ten kilometres without the Docs and extra clothes. I have had other breakdowns and have been grateful for having been prepared. Even when I am just going fifteen minutes down the road or know I will be in a built up area, I have this gear and normally water and some hard candies or a snack as well as some other handy items.
Do I look like some crazed mountain-man when I am out? Not most times. It really is easy to wear sensible shoes and clothes and look presentable. If not, that is why your car has a trunk. As is the motto of one of my former Regiments (and the United States Coast Guard): Semper Paratus - Always Ready. blbbl
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