“Popsicle Toes” was a song by Michael Franks. My wife and I saw him do it in concert years ago. Long after, I was diagnosed with Neuropathy, a numbness in my toes associated with nerve damage. Let’s just say it – old age! Even at this stage, it’s not painful or even debilitating, but certainly annoying. It feels like there’s very little circulation in my toes and the lack of feeling affects my balance. I continue to run every morning, but it’s often like I’m dragging my feet along for the ride. I should feel lucky that it’s the only thing slowing me down at age 68. I wiggle my toes, hoping the blood flow will return, like being out in the cold too long. I remember, for example, that frozen feeling after hours of ice skating. You’d rub them once you got to a warm spot, slowly restoring the circulation. Well, my “Popsicle Toes’ never seem to thaw anymore!

Some people claim that the lyrics of “Popsicle Toes,” refer to a foot fetish. However, there are lots of silly songs about toes. There’s “Bubble Toes,” “Open Toes,” “Tip Toes,” and “Cold Toes on a cold floor,” to name just a few that have nothing to do with sucking on appendages. Jimmy Buffett famously wrote “I got my toes in the water and ass in the sand, Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand…” Toes have definitely gotten a lot of attention by musicians and perverts. The ten of them had my attention in an entirely different way this morning as I slowly plodded along the sidewalks of Portland.

After some 5500 grueling steps, I became curious about the origin of the Popsicle, of all things. Here’s what I found according to Wikipedia, this lazy writer’s main source of important research:

In 1905 in Oakland, California, 11-year-old Francis William “Frank” Epperson was mixing a powdered flavoring for soft drinks with water. He accidentally left it on the back porch overnight, with a stirring stick still in it. That night, the temperature dropped below freezing, and the next morning, Epperson discovered the drink had frozen to the stick, inspiring the idea of a fruit-flavored ‘Popsicle’.

In 1922, he introduced the creation at a fireman’s ball, where according to reports it was “a sensation”. In 1923, Epperson began selling the frozen pops to the public at Neptune Beach, an amusement park in Alameda, California. By 1924 Epperson had received a patent for his “frozen confectionery” which he called “the Epsicle ice pop”. He renamed it to Popsicle, allegedly at the insistence of his children. Popsicles were originally sold in fruity flavors and marketed as a “frozen drink on a stick.”

This was indeed a lucky kid who invented the Popsicle. After all, you would think that this would happen at the North Pole rather than sunny California. What are the odds of freezing toes on the beach? Other kids are trying to make a few bucks on the street corners selling lemonade and this young entrepreneur makes a fortune because of a cold night. I have to give him credit for capitalizing on this idea – maybe he got some help from his parents? It also makes me think of a flashy couple that I met on the Indy Car racing circuit. They drove matching Lamborghini automobiles because they had just sold their Otter Pop creation to Pillsbury, an idea they obviously stole from Epsicle. There’s a lesson here! For each of us, life has its lucky moments…take advantage of them. 

It’s funny what comes to mind when you’re running, and trying to distract your mind from focusing on the heaviness of each step. I felt like my feet had just come out of the freezer, and I was maneuvering on huge blocks of ice. It was even relatively warm this morning for Portland. “Popsicle Toes” should have been the last thing on my mind, as I belted out the finish of the Jimmy Buffett “Toes” tune: 

“….Life is good today, life is good today!”