7th October 2022
Somehow I stepped in some chewing gum. It imbedded it in the heel of my shoe at some point. I knew something was wrong when we entered Goodwill, on a rare shopping expedition. The business had transferred to a new location, and it had one of those resin coated floors. As soon as we cleared the electric doors and passed the large mats, my heel made contact. The adhesion of the gum was significant, it almost tore my shoe off as I attempted to lift my foot. I tried to ignore it, but every step I took there was a “snick!” sound, and there was no point in trying to scuff it off because there was no friction on the floor.
I found a quiet part of the store, and lifted my foot to examine what was stuck on my heel.
Whoever spat the gum out must have had a bloody mouthful of the stuff, it was a big mound of grey sticky gunk.
I proceeded to try to remove the substance, but I could not pull it off my heel, it was well bonded. I must have looked odd to anyone watching me standing on one leg, frantically picking bits off my shoe. I managed to remove a small portion, but where should I put it? I certainly didn’t want to throw it on to the floor and cause some old lady to become permanently stuck to the floor.
In desperation I found a spot at the back of a shelf and deposited it there. I continued to remove bits, adding to the pile on the shelf.
I thought that I was clean of the goo, but as I walked off, the snicking continued.
I had only one option left and that was to go outside and scrape my foot around the car park, which is what I did.
I performed the “remove the gum from the shoe” dance by dragging the offending heel on the tarmac. This was successful, I didn’t mind looking like I had a walking impediment to rid myself of that awful muck.
Another Lifetime to go 