Barefoot in the past

I'm wondering if people in times gone by went barefoot in the same way that sandals/flip-flops are popular now during Summer. Was it the fact that poor people couldn't afford shoes, or do you think some did it by choice because they liked it. Was it mostly a "womens thing", as with Summer sandals, or did many men do it as well?

I believe that in the past bare feet were the equivalent of sandals for lots and lots of people.

 

Not sure about that, but I'm old enough to remember the hippy era of the sixties. There were plenty of bare feet around in that period, indeed it was seen as cool. Bare feet with cowbells round the ankles was de rigueur for a while. It seemed like the start of a whole new era, but sadly those people grew up and got sensible. I was too young to be fully part of it and was kept in check by my parents, but my desire to be bf started back in those days and has never left.

 

My grandparents, who have been dead for years, grew up in a time in which working-class Southerners considered shoes to be quite expensive. At the end of each school year, the kids' shoes were put away until the fall, except for the more dressy shoes that were worn only to church on Sunday morning.

My parents grew up in a time when most families in small Southern towns could easily afford shoes, but they were considered optional in summer, especially for young people. Barefoot was an equally popular option for male and female. A lot of free time was spent in grassy back yards and walking along shady sidewalks. And there was much less emphasis on wearing expensive stuff and projecting an image than there is today, according to what I've been told.

The 1960's hippy era didn't have much of an impact around here on footwear trends.

I grew up in a time (late 1970's) when flip-flops were just starting to become popular, though they weren't as comfortable or long-lasting as the ones we can buy today. There were more big asphalt parking lots without trees than ever before, and increasing amounts of broken glass lying around. I also saw the start of sexist double standards that considered bare feet for guys to be redneck, but girls who did this were considered sexy and sensual.

Like a lot of my peers, I've moved to a larger city, and I can't think of anywhere outdoors I would want to walk without shoes right now, except to check my mailbox, early or late in the day. The local post office and drug store don't require shoes, but their parking lots are too damn hot.

 

Hi. I can also remember the 1960's, although being born in 1958 I was only a child at the time. I can admit though that even then I really liked to go barefoot, but was shy about it. In early 1971 I started a new secondary school in Oxford, England. It was here I first became aware of hippy type young people going round barefoot. They used to wear (artificially) ripped, worn-out looking clothes and long messy hair, often done in the "Afro" style like Marc Bolan. Alot of them were students from the university. They were a few years older than me and I SOOOOO used to envy them as they walked past. The memories of those people were a key inspiration to me doing the same thing around Oxford many years later.

 

Growing up in the 60's and 70's I do remember going barefoot was more more accepted than it is now. It was not uncommon to see many of my peers who lived in and around my neighborhood to be barefoot during the warmer months. I was quite shy when it came to exposing my feet, so consequently I was almost never seen without shoes or even a shirtless for that matter during the summertime. I was jealous of those who did venture outside barefoot wishing I was able to muster up the courage to do the same.

I grew up in a conservative midwestern U.S. city away from any beach, so as far as sandals went, they were popular for females. It was uncommon to see any males whatever their age wearing anything besides sneakers or regular shoes. If you decided against the typical footwear, you just went barefoot. I started wearing flip flops in 1980 right after high school so I believe I became a trendsetter in regards to this type of footwear. Back in the 70's towards the end of the school year I recall seeing a couple of girls wearing flip flops to class but no boys unlike what you see today. I always wondered what the reaction might have been if I had the courage to wear flip flops to school. Would have been interesting.

 

Yes, I remember from my school days in the 1970s: flipflops were strictly for the girls - no boy would ever be seen in them.

I keep reading the title of this thread as 'Barefoot in the Park' - a comedy play from the 1970s. Were you thinking of that, Lose The Shoes? I see you're based in the UK.

 

That's true Red rose about the flip-flops. I felt very awkward indeed wearing them in the early 70s. Round here in Cornwall though, things have changed alot and its commonplace to see men wearing flip-flops. Still not as many as the women, but enough so its no longer "weird":mickey:

"Barefoot in the Park". I didn't head the post with a similar title as a conscious act, but no doubt my unconscious played a part. Thank-you for mentioning it.

Yes, I'm based in Redruth.:daisy:

 

Hi Karen. Thanks for the info about the working-class Southerners going barefoot during Summer. Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn must have had some basis in reality too.
I believe barefooting was normal during and before the nineteenth century in rural Ireland. How much was because of poverty and how much was choice I don't know. An elderly Irish woman told me recently that it still does happen over there on occasion.

Personally, I think its most cool to go barefoot in large cities where its a totally unusual thing to do; but then that's me and it depends on the city also. Places like Oxford and Bath are particular favourites of mine because I love the old buildings and worn paving slabs. If I had the cash I'd do Vienna, Budapest, Prague and Florence too.
Yes, I understand about the hot asphalt. However, fortunately there's now plenty of bare, minimal sandals that are almost barefoot but can "save ones sole" in such circumstances. As for me, I prefer to just grin and bare it lol!:sunny: (to have a day where the asphalt gets hot to that degree in England is exceedingly rare.

On the sexism thing. I do occasionally encounter hostility here in England. However, this has more to do with me doing something considered "effeminate" or non-conformist than redneck. :daisy:

 

Hi. I grew up through the same time period and remember when there were many barefooters out and about. How I used to envy these free spirits lol! Like you I was shy about exposing my feet so being able to wear sandals/flip-flops appeared really cool and comfortable, whereas bare feet was the height of tactile freedom. I remember in my early teens 40 years ago, waiting for the bus home home after school in the centre of Oxford and seeing these hippys going by barefoot. They made such a lasting impression that decades later in the late 1990's I finally mustered the wherewithal to become one myself. In town during a heatwave in 1996 I put my socks and shoes in a carrier bag and I was free.
Funny thing was on occasion, people would see me and do the same - making sure they were in my line of sight !! Maybe they in turn envied me? Who knows.
If you had worn flip-flops to school in 1980, perhaps it would have seemed weird for a guy and you may have some hassle, but approval too from others. I bet one or two males, and certainly girls, would have followed your example.:sunny:

 

Twain wrote mostly about the culture of the Mississippi River valley, which has always been quite different from the South in general. The river is lined with party towns like St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans. Most of the South is more uptight and judgmental. Atlanta is the only hedonistic Southern city away from the river, since Miami is a part of the Caribbean culture, not the American South. But you won't see hardly anybody without shoes in those places today.

Along the Atlantic coast, beach towns in the South used to be very tolerant of bare feet, even in dance clubs and restaurants, as recently as the mid-1980's. No more. Some oceanfront hotels and condos even require you to put on sandals to walk through the lobby! Fortunately, the majority of them don't have that rule yet. I guess you know what happens when you put on flip-flops after spending time on the beach. Sand gets underneath the thong and wears your skin raw, fast.

In the '80's, you could just park along the edge of the road in an undeveloped area and walk across soft sand to the ocean. Now, they try to control erosion by piling up giant sand dunes and planting sawgrass on it, which has leaves as sharp as a kitchen knife! You have to cross over the dunes on wooden boardwalks which have sharp splinters and nail heads sticking up in random places. If you stay on the beach until dark, you had better have a flashlight with you for that walk back to the car. And when the high tides lap up against those unnatural dunes, guess what they leave behind...broken shells! That has to be the most painful walking surface on earth. :willy_nilly: And because of global warming, we have a lot more jellyfish in the water to step on.

All this has just about turned me against going to the beach for vacations. Once a year is enough for me.

Up in the mountains, not nearly as much has changed. There are not a lot of new rules, or new hazards or obstacles. Just like 40 years ago, if the weather is warm enough and you can handle the sometimes rocky and steep walking surfaces, you can still go to scenic natural areas and pretty much wear whatever you want, and do what you want. The park rangers aren't going to say shit to you, as long as you aren't bothering anyone or damaging anything or doing something unsafe. Nobody is going to make you dress a certain way to eat your picnic lunch or wade across a whitewater stream or hang around a campground and talk to people. Even in the better mountain hotels, I never see signs about dress codes or hear negative comments about getting super-casual.
:sunny:

The only rule change I can think of, in my lifetime, is that if you rent a canoe at a mountain lake, they will make you wear a life jacket (flotation vest). That isn't so bad.

In my office, I can get by with leaving my shoes under my desk all day. That wouldn't be socially acceptable for a guy. Outdoors, barefoot seems to be equally unacceptable for everybody around here, even in a public park or around a pool.

I never have had good luck around city parks. Seems like I always step on something sharp that fell off a tree, hidden in the grass, and it goes straight into my arch. Sidewalks have nowhere to hide anything.

 

Mark Twain did base Tom and Huck on boys he grew up with in Hannibal missouri

 

in the late 60's it was not uncommon to see kids as well as adults going barefoot to grocery stores and everywhere else really, it was considered the cool thing to do, mention going barefoot to young people today and they go ewwww thats gross, i never see anyone barefoot these days, kinda sad really

 

In Tom Sawyer, the description of Huck Finn includes: "he was always the first boy that went barefoot in the spring and the last to resume leather in the fall". So that implies that all the children, or the boys at least, went around barefoot in summer, though the wilder you were, the more you did it. When did it stop being respectable to let your kids go barefoot? Nowadays people would look at them funny, and the parents too.

As for sexism in barefooting, it's decades since I saw Barefoot in the Park, but as I recall there was a couple that had a fight when she did it and he refused. It really annoys me that our society allows women to wear sandals just about anywhere in warm weather, and men have to stick with solid shoes. It's time we smashed society.

 

I wouldn't say there's any gender preference given in the South (USA) with regards to sandals and flip flops on men vs. women. I see them just as much on both around here when it's hot.

These days I only wear shoes to the office. Otherwise it's barefoot, or flops of I MUST have something on my feet.

 

I see no reason why bare feet shouldn't be just as acceptable as sandals throughout the Western World for everyone who chooses to go that way. Why sandals but not bare feet? I've asked myself this since I was five years old.

 

Redruth! Man I know it well, I used to live in Redruth, not that it's a place of greatness but it's home to my heart

 

Twenty years ago it wasn't uncommon to see at least 6 or more barefooters on the streets of Greenwich Village (NYC). I met two ex-girlfriends while we were both barefoot. I recall saying to Suzy (one of them) "I see we like the same style and color shoes!" because we both had very dirty feet:sunny:. Today, you'd hardly see someone who slipped off their sandals while on a blanket on the grass in the park or wading in the fountain in Washington Square Park.

Sadly, very few people go barefoot on streets, in stores, etc. anymore. Dead shows were great for meeting other fulltime barefooters. Today, we have people fighting while waiting in line at the Nike or Addidas stores when a new sneaker line is introduced:devil:

 

I grew up in Alabama and we all lost our shoes in summer. We would be gone all day all over town barefoot when I was about eight years old. We would ride the bus and go behind the malls and rummage through garbage bins and find lots of "valuable" stuff.....that is.....valuable to an eight year old. No one ever bothered us. The movie theatre floors were cool and sticky. We didn't care....never even thought about it. We climbed all over construction sites and occasionally got a nail through our foot, but that was par for the course. Kids down here still go barefoot a lot until they are in thier teens. I do it as much as possible. I am much happier when I do.