May I take this opportunity to state how much I hate Crocs? This comes up because I have begged the kids to wear shoes to rehearsal, not sandals. So they wear Crocs.
Those things are sandals. If you wear them without socks (and anyone who would wear socks with those things simply should not be allowed to live anymore), they are not shoes. If you wear them so that your feet can "breathe", they are not shoes. If your footwear spends more time off your feet than on because you can't not play with them, they are not shoes.
Not only are they totally useless as footwear, but they are also so incredibly hideous. It's like watching people walk around in Ugg boots. Oh no, you think, that poor person with absolutely no sense of taste. Someone should intervene; someone should save them from themselves.
I am very anti-feet. I do not own, nor have I ever worn, a pair of sandals. It's a totally irrational thing, but I believe that feet should be kept in socks unless you are in intimate company. We don't need to see those.
Once, when my cousins came to visit (the first of maybe three times), I remember I got in trouble for whacking one of them with a pillow. He was sitting curled up in the couch barefoot, and all I wanted to do was cover up his feet.
While we're on the subject, flip flops piss me off too. I hate the noise they make, I hate watching people play with them. I especially hate the imprint of the wearer's feet in them when they take them off. But I think the thing I hate most of all about flip flops is that I have only ever seen one person who wore a pair that fit them, and that was in a play.
Your toes should not hang over the edge; front or side. If you've managed to smash the foam down so much that you can see big toe imprints in the side, you were wearing the wrong size. Your heels should not have an inch of flip flop behind them. They should match the footprint of your regular shoes. How hard is it to try a couple pairs on until you find a size that fits?
The funny thing about all of this is that feet (and sandals) don't fill me with fear. I'm not afraid of them, so it's not a phobia. Nope, they just get me thinking along these lines. They annoy me. The only other thing I can think to explain it is that I have a pet peeve.
I could go on, and talk about how I also hate heels, and shoes with lots of crazy crap on them. It's not surprising that 90% of my sneakers were Reebok Classics (which would make me all the range in England, but for some reason the balls of my feet don't like them anymore), Keds, and Converse. Though I do remember having a pair of LA Gear hightops once with velcro as well as hot pink laces (it was the 90's, back when we called it hot pink, not neon), and a pair of glow-in-the-dark-stars shoes with velcro. And my first grade saddle shoe phase. I wore those things everywhere.
Anyway, yes, shoes. Wear them. Do me a favour.