I'm currently on vacation in a small town in BC Canada, called Sicamous. People here are always dressed down, or ready for the beach, and guess what else.....hardly any shoes! I have always felt at home here, but even more so now! Back at home in Alberta, everyone wears shoes. I swear, I am the only barefooter in our town. I have never seen anyone else barefoot...I even get made fun of for my bottomless sandals and multipule (sp?) toe rings....the closest anyone will go to barefeet is flip flops, and even that is rare. Yesterday I was in a bargain shop and nearly everyone was barefoot! It was wonderful! This place really is my dream place to live....with the exception of the fact that it's going totally high-class now and they're building it up with $300 000 lofts by the beach....here come all the ugly politicians. ugh. So much for small town charm......... But in the mean time, I feel like I'm in heaven right now. I can go outside, dressed any way that I want, shoes or not, and no one gives two flying craps about it! None of the stores, resteraunts (well, except the rich people ones) or anything require shoes. It's so nice not to be hassled for it and just feel free to be myself!
lol, that gives me even more of a reason to want to move to hawaii! I'd love to live in california if it weren't for all the superficiality, since it's so "beachy" But this place is like a nicer version of california, sans the palm trees.
Thanks for the heads up kirstyn! We're only a two hour trip from Vancouver, so I'll definitely have to check it out sometime. It sounds like my memories of Santa Cruz California, one of the towns I always loved to go to growing up. Same carefree attitude and I even remember many of the stores carried signs which actually encouraged barefoot patrons like "No shirt, no shoes, no problem", or "Bare Feet Welcome". This was over ten years ago now though...I wonder if it's still as laid back as I remember it. But I will certainly look into a trip to Sicamous next time we head ove the border!
definately check it out, this town is awsome. It's a massive tourist town in the summer...the population goes from 3000 in the winter to 10 000 in the summer! I don't want to go home on Sunday...i've been here for a month, and really am not ready to go home! I live in a province full of redneck farmers....yeah, that's really not my thing, lol sadily, there's no signs up like that, but the attidude is there! It'd be nice to see that, though! maybe some have it, and I haven't noticed.... I just got a funny martha stewart idea....since I'm moving on the 1st of september, I'm trying to think of things to do for decorating...I'm going to make a little painted sign that says "no shirt, no shoes, no problem" thanks for the insiration!
Hahah, you're welcome for the inspiration! Are you moving to another house in the same town full of rednecks as you're in now? I would think bare feet would be acceptable around there? The US rednecks I've known (from the southern states mostly) have all been really cool about bare feet - a lot of them talk about running around barefoot in the summer and only putting shoes on for Church! Maybe Canadian rednecks are different?! barefoot_kirstyn: I was meaning to ask you, and it's totall off-topic but I have to ask: are you a Flames fan? I'm a Canucks fan, but I like the Flames too - I went up last January to the 'Nucks/Flames game in january, and it was the best hockey I'd watched in a while ('course the strike made sure that I was hungry for hockey period). Anyhow, I was jsut curious.
lol, you're right, that is off topic! I'm not majorly into hockey, but when the flames were in the playoffs 2 years ago, I was all for 'em! This year, of course, it was the Oilers....just wish it wouldn't have ended the way it did. I really surprised myself, too, as I'm not really a sporty kinda person, but I was yelling at the TV in those last few games, lol! But I think the entire province joined me on that one...you should have seen the crap we had going on here! I'm moving one town over to be closer to the college I'm going to in September, but it's only a few minutes away from the one I'm in now. I grew up in both towns pretty much all my life. Yeah, our rednecks must be different from yours, lol, cuz everyone here is in boots, plaid shirts, cowboy hats, the typical red neck thing. Needless to say, I feel a little outta place. Back high school about 5 years ago, I was the only person "like me" there was....everyone else were either church-goers or football players...then there was me skipping barefoot down the hallways.....
I've always wanted to see Calgary - I love Vancouver and get up there as often as I can (I have family in Burnaby). Victoria is one of my favorite "relaxation" spots, at least in the off-season. It's so different going to a hockey game in a hockey town. We have only a minor league team here in Seattle, and while there are certainly fans of the team, it is nothing like the games Ive been to in Vancouver. It's cool that you used to go skipping down the halls in school barefoot. I never had the courage to embrace my fascination with bare feet until I moved up here to go to college, and even then it was a couple years after moving here before I finally started to risk going out in public barefoot! Kudos!
wholy crap~matt, we have the same toe rings, that's creepy!!!! I actually used to go barefoot all the time in jr high, never thinking that it was anythind different...I don't know, I just enjoyed it. Calgary scares me, lol...every time that I drive down there, I get lost. It's too big. I live right up by Edmonton...it's not nearly as nice as Calgary, but at least I can get out of it. One night about 2 years ago, I was taking a Greyhound bus from Sicamous to Clagary and it took me 4 hours just to get out of the city! lol
I find it so strange that the "rich" areas seem to be more barefoot friendly then the poorer sections of towns.... I guess it's that whole 'barefoot is a sign of poverty' vibe. Here in florida, in the middle middle class neighborhoods (like I live in), most kids don't go barefoot, even to the pool! However, when I'm visiting friends in some of the richer areas, you'll see everyone shoeless and walking around... Makes little sense to me...sigh.. people are stupid.
well, this place is still pretty much full of a whole mix of people....it's not a "rich town" just yet. This place had that type of vibe 8 years ago when there was only one road and it wasn't paved. It actually used to be a place people on welfare would go to live. Man, when I found that out, I was thinking, "yesh, I should go on welfare (lol)", but now all the housing units for them have been bought out and the tenants evicted to build lofts with storage garages for them rich people's boats. (puke) But now that you mention that, it's really true. Maybe it's because poorer people find it a luxury to have shoes so they wear them all the time, and rich people just don't care. I ain't rich by any means at all, personally. I'm a college student, that screams poor right there! lol But yeah, I still love my feet bare as could be!
I wonder if people who live in poorer neighborhoods see shoes as an elevation above their situation. Some of the old stereotypes of poor people being shoeless may be unattractive, and wearing shoes might help them feel like they at least have THAT. That's so cool that we have the same type of toe rings! Great minds think alike, right? It's cool that you were enough of a free spirit to go barefoot in Jr. high. I know a lot of girls did that in my high school, but I never even THOUGHT about it, it would have been too embarrassing by far. I had a good time watching all the barefoot girls running around though!
I felt exactly the same way! Seeing girls going barefoot back in my junior and senior high days are permanently cemented in my mind. Oh and how much I enjoyed seeing that! And to think that I was paranoid of anyone seeing my feet, let alone a girl. Oh wait a minute....... back in junior high I had a girlfriend who loved to go barefoot and would physically remove my shoes and have do the same. Nevertheless I was still embarrassed to be barefoot, but she definately got me on the right foot (pardon the pun) to where I am today. Oh if I now could only return to those carefree days of a teenager, at least that's how they seem today.........I'd have so much fun!
Funny enough, my highschool years seriously left something to be desired, but I felt better when I took off my shoes. It's weird how something as trivial as that can change your whole perspective. I got some funny looks, but they were mainly from those girls who look funny at everyone. The guys never said anything....maybe they were all thinking what you guys were, lol So yeah, I'm leaving my paradise tomorrow ....well, I guess it would be today since it's past midnight, but yeah, you get the point. Back to being the only barefooter at home, lol I'm not looking foward to going home. I sat on the beach today just wanting to cry. There's a lot of crap going on at home, and it was nice to just escape from it all for a while. I feel like a whole different person here and for once, I can actually think. I get lost in the mess at home and can't think straight. I'm not ready to go home....*sigh* sorry for the downer...no where else to write and no one else to talk to....guess I needed to vent a little.
Well I hope you have agood trip back home! Hopefully the time away will help you have a good perspective on your problems when you have to deal with them again. I find that time away really clears my head and allows me the clarity to find solutions to the things that had been bothering me before I went away.
Well, I made it home alive....but not without almost missing my connecting flight! I had to fly from Kelowna to Vancouver and then to Edmonton, but the plane from Kelowna to Vancouver was delayed by a half hour and I litterally had 5 minutes to get everything off my plane, run half way across the airport and get on my next flight! whew, it was sure fun! You'd think that more people would be a little more helpful when you're toting a baby and 2 huge bags on your shoulders. I had 3 nice people help me today, and lord, did I ever thank them! I'm a short person and it looked like I wasn't even there, just a pile of luggage and a kid sticking up out of it. No more planes for a while. I love travling, but that was enough for a while, lol. I had a wonderful time, thanks matt I feel like I've come back home with a much better attitude....now it's facing the issues I was trying to deal with there that's the fun part......
Glad that you got home safe and sound! Hey, did you do any of the trip barefoot? I've only gone barefoot on a trip once, on a late night flight. Usually I stick with my flip flops and just slip them off once I'm on board and leave them off until I debark. Isn't it the most difficult thing to get on and off an airplane with a baby? My God, I used to look at parents carrying all their gear and the kids, and it never really registered with me until we had to do it for the first time. It sounded like you were traveling alone? That's even harder! Hope you get a little down time to recover from your traveling before you have to get back to the hard stuff.
yeah, I was alone. I actually did do some of it barefoot. Mostly in the car adn on the plane....my shoes were just somethign extra to carry, so I kept them on when I was walking. It was one BIG pain in the ass to get off that plane alone!!! Didn't really get to rest, though. The issue is with the dude i'm married to. We're having a lot of problems, and the outlook doesn't look too great.
