…even 5,500 years later.

Apparently an international team of archeologists discovered the world’s oldest leather shoe in Egypt. It looks like a moccasin and is in amazingly good condition based on the carbon dating…the shoelaces are even preserved.

The lace-up bootie is very similar to the “pampooties” moccasins that were popular in Ireland as late as the 1950s. The scientists believe the leather was from a cow and the craftsmanship is a very similar technique as those found all across Europe.

I was at my moms a few months ago helping her clean out the garage, and she had kept an old pair of tennis shoes that both my boys wore that were similar to my Dad’s…she didn’t have the heart to throw them away, even though they were old and tattered…it became more difficult when my Dad passed away. I too could not bear to trash them and so they are sealed up in an old suitcase…who knows, maybe 5,500 years from now, someone will “discover” them and wonder why they were even preserved. If they only could know the beautiful symbolism of those precious feet that walked beside my Dad who was a wonderful grandpa to my boys and the mentoring “steps” he provided were priceless and worth a legendary story.