Them And Us

"City slickers", that's what we used to call them for, to us, they always seemed suave and cool. They were always slight and flexible - indeed it appeared that it was their complete docility which allowed them to be taken out on a trip; we could see no other reason. Everything we had, they lacked. We were strong and durable and didn't mind rocks, streams, rain mud, heat. We lived our lives outside and kept away from soft furnishing and carpet. They were flimsy, weak and timid. Seldom did they show themselves outside a hut and if they did they would gingerly jump to avoid and dampness. We valued practicality and long life where they seemed to prefer show and flippant masquerade.

It is little wonder therefore that there was constant conflict between us: Us, the boots, and Them, the hut shoes. page 30Indeed any reasonable person would be slow to chide us for our simmering anger and plans for revenge when they saw us - us! - thrown out on the veranda of a hut while They -those whom we had carried all day - gaily pattered around enjoying warmth and dry socks.

It's true we were a strange combination. The old-timers with their skins wrinkled and tough from days in the sun and rain; hardy types who worried little about what the next day would bring - they had been through worse before. And the new green hides who, against their wishes, exposed fresh wounds and scratches on their now dirty surfaces. They didn't say much and were slow to slump down any-old-how as did all the others, remaining just as they were left - stiff and sore. And in between a group which completed the span from old to new. it was these who did all the talking - "We came from Such-and-such today" ... "Hard going over that river" ... "Where's that, I haven't been there before?" ... "Aw, there! - well, me and my mate did that in three hours..."

And there was always a student group which spoke of intellectual things. They would constantly theorise, for example on the relationship between body and sole: How were they joined? Did the body out-last the sole or could there be several soles for one body? Where did the sole come from, how was it made and where did it go when the body decayed?

And what of those unruffled soles which had lost their tenacity and would slide this way and that - they who lived their lives not according to any teachings or principles but according to the environmental situation at the time.

A strange mixture indeed, but combine - somehow or other - we always did, for we had one thing in common - our dislike of those "city slickers".

There never actually occurred any confrontation between ourselves and the "slickers" en masse. For as the next day appeared we would as usual stretch and yawn and, with the normal early complaints of smelling socks and aching limbs over and done with, eagerly set off. Out, free to explore whatever might be there, while our rivals were shuffled into bags with old food and grimy billies. And so for the time being they were forgotten....

M.G.