ORANGE CITY, Iowa | The Dutch have been wearing wooden shoes since medieval times.
Dr. Jonathan Grossmann said his college roommate, who hailed from the Netherlands, wore his "klompen" out to the barn every day. He said contractors in the Netherlands still slip on their wooden shoes to do roofing work.
Grossmann has worn wooden shoes to the Orange City Tulip Festival for 18 years and gone injury-free the entire time, even while scrubbing the street. This year, his costume doesn't require them.
"We always try to wear a heavy pair of socks and then we can get some stick-on foam up inside the top of the shoe," he explained as he displayed a pair of black wooden shoes in the living room of his Orange City home. "It gives you a little bit more comfort."
The soles of wooden shoes, Grossmann said, are actually very comfortable.
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"I've never had any problem at all with that part, because it has a nice arch and it's curved nicely for your foot," he said.
Unlike leather shoes, wooden shoes don't bend when you walk. Grossmann said you'll need to practice walking in them before taking to the streets of Orange City come Tulip time. He said a friend of his rides a high wheel bike during the parades in wooden shoes. Grossmann opts for leather shoes while bike riding. He said he tried to ride a motorcycle to the festival in wooden shoes once, but that didn't work out.
"When you walk with wooden shoes, your feet don't flex," Grossmann said. "You kind of have to pick the whole foot up."
Grossmann, a family physician with Orange City Area Health System, said he hasn't had to treat any sprained ankles or other injuries suffered while wearing wooden shoes. He suspects trips and falls would likely plague those who haven't prepared.
Grossmann said his friend did run into some trouble one year riding a high wheel bike in wooden shoes during the parade while smoking a pipe.
"He was hyperventilating. He started to get nauseated and he about passed out," he said. "You can get too authentic, I think."
The most common ailment to befall tulip festival-goers, Grossmann said, is dehydration. If the weather is warm, he said you should be sure to drink plenty of water and take breaks in the shade.
"We usually get some elderly people who are dehydrated," he said. "They come to the emergency room because they've fainted."
Grossmann has never had to respond to an emergency while in costume during the festival. He said a triage tent manned by an ambulance crew is located uptown near the parade route.
"They'll actually see people down there that aren't feeling well," he said. "The paramedics will assess them and take care of them down there. They're really good at their jobs."
