Others Barefoot in Public?

Today I actually spotted TWO barefoot people. I was driving to get my car cleaned, :auto: and as I was leaving my housing tract, I spotted a young guy, most likely in his mid- or late 20s, going for a walk in the neighborhood pushing a stroller. What caught my attention about him immediately was that he was barefoot! I had to do a double-take to make sure he wasn't wearing flip-flops, but he indeed was walking through the neighborhood in his bare feet.

Also, on the way to the car wash, I spotted another young guy in his early 20s waiting for the bus. He was sitting cross-legged on the cement (there was no bench to sit on), and I could tell immediately that he was barefoot as well.

It's rare to see people barefoot in public, except for the beaches and public swimming pools. But today, I spotted TWO in the span of a minute--in two different places!

 

I met some friends yesterday (Saturday) morning for breakfast at a local Westin Hotel. While we were in the parking lot finishing our conversation and saying our goodbyes, a barefoot woman came walking out of the hotel, crossed the parking lot, got in her car, and drove away. I thought she must be carrying shoes, but I didn't see any. I don't know, I'm just seeing more people barefoot in public this year than in the past.

 

The number of others I see barefoot in public seems to vary from year to year. A few summers ago, I think I saw a peak number. This year I've hardly seen any.

 

I've only seen two so far this year, apart from the nine i went walking with last month...

 

I also forgot to mention that several years ago here in my neighborhood, I was on my way to the local mall. At the stop sign, there was a young guy (20s) crossing the street in front of me walking his dog. This guy was barefoot (and so was his dog). I haven't seen him since then, unfortunately.

There was also another time some years back when I was driving past a local strip mall and saw this barefoot guy cross the street (I was watching him in my rear view mirror), coming from an apartment complex on one side of the street to go to the Starbucks directly across on the other side. I haven't seen this guy since then, either.

 

Geez, this year I'm finding barefoot folks everywhere. About an hour ago I stopped at a local Circle K convenience store to buy a drink. As I was leaving, here comes this barefoot guy walking in!

There's also a retired woman who lives just up the street from me. Somehow our paths have never crossed, but whenever I see her (in her driveway, walking her dog, talking to neighbors, etc.), she's barefoot.

 

It seems that people in smaller towns are more likely to go barefoot. Almost every barefoot shopper I have seen has been in a small town Dollar General, and sometimes a supermarket or wal mart. That being said, I have still not seen any barefooters this year as far as shopping goes. I did see a hippy style man walk into the building that I work in barefoot though. Anyone else notice the small town thing?

 

Yesterday evening, as I was on my way home from work, I spotted another flip-flop person boarding the same tram I did, who at first took a seat, then changed seats to pass my seat and sit down, looking at his feet and wiggling his toes in those thin-soled things... I don't know whether it was true, but that young man, dressed in three-quarter length baggy cargo pants and a plaid shirt in tones of orange might have pondered the possibility to shed them and go barefoot...
However, he didn't.
Well, perhaps I was able to show him a way that he might try out.
Other than that almost barefooter, no other spottings so far...

wiggling toes in anticipation of other barefooters,

~*Ganesha*~

 

OK, here's another one I remember. This time it was about a year ago that I was at a mall near my sister's house (she lives about 15 miles from me), and I happened to see a teen-age girl and her friend walking ahead of me a few paces. The first girl I mentioned was walking in the mall barefoot, just like Barefoot Jaime. It didn't look like she was carrying shoes with her, but she did have her purse (a small one) and a shopping bag (not big enough to carry a pair of shoes). No one was paying attention to her (except for me since I was walking behind her).

And in case you're wondering--I wasn't barefooting it that day, but was wearing flip-flops since I didn't want to have any run-ins with the shoe Nazis at that mall.

 

Hi Ganesha! The last couple of times I was in Germany (business meeting in 2007, vacation 2008) I saw a few women walking down the street barefoot, carrying their shoes. During both visits it was very warm. I believe I was in Heidelberg at the time and observed this practice on a few occasions. Maybe it's because of the university there. Nobody seemed to care. I thought maybe this was commonplace, but from your comments, apparently not.

 

Well, the presence of students can be helpful to raise the barefooters' counter - however, the city I live in, is mostly inhabited by older people and less members of the alternative societies...

On a statistic level, Muelheim is among the cities with the highest average age of its populace in our state.

Maybe I should visit the neighbouring student cities in the Ruhr metropolis area a bit more often to spot other barefooters... However, currently, my spare time is kind of cut down due to working overtime. Oh well, there's still some summer left, plus a three-week vacation from mid-July to the end of that month - I'm sure that will be the time to encounter fellow barefooters.

Anyway, you're correct in observing that most people really don't care - especially in summer.

Wiggling toes in anticipation,

~*Ganesha*~

 

I keep remembering people here in my city (L.A.-area suburb) that I've seen barefoot in public, so here's a couple more. I passed by a Carl's Jr. restaurant to get something to eat for dinner one day last summer. There were three teenage guys ahead of me in line placing their order and I noticed that one of them was barefoot (he was also holding a skateboard in one arm). The other two guys wore flip-flops. The manager saw the barefoot guy and didn't say anything to him--or to me, for that matter, since I was barefoot as well.

Another sighting I can remember was also around this time last year. I remember it well because it was HOT and sunny outside. I was picking up some shirts from the dry cleaners and was driving home. I was getting ready to turn left into my neighborhood when I spotted a young (20s) guy skateboarding on the sidewalk and he was barefoot. I did notice, however, that he was holding his flip-flops in one hand. He then stopped, picked up his skateboard and started crossing the street in front of me. As he did (I was still waiting for cross traffic to clear so I could make my left turn), he noticed I was looking at him and he smiled. I gave him the thumbs-up. After I turned left, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw him skateboarding on the sidewalk on the other side--still barefoot!

 

This weekend my wife and I went to the Keystone Ski Resort. During the summer the lifts are open to take people to the top for hiking, mountain biking, picnics, etc. My wife and I went for a hike at the top. As we were going down a gravel (small "pea" gravel) trail, a woman was coming toward us walking barefoot on the gravel. I was impressed. She was handling it quite well - normal steps, regular pace, no signs of discomfort.

After we finished our hike at the top, we went back down to the village where there was a music festival underway. There were two women, ~20, dancing on the asphalt. One was barefoot with no shoes in sight!

 

i saw one guy in a gas station a looong time ago and a man recently in the airport. he was carrying his shoes though.
i'm surprised i haven't seen more though. in the summer i only wear shoes when it's either really disgusting-bathrooms at work- or if i won't be allowed inside otherwise. haha

 

when you spot adult barefooters in italy it nearly always reduces to two categories:
1- german tourists; 2-leftists.
it is not commonplace at all. i never , ever spot a barefooter. never. i am able to see way more shod people on the beach during summer than people thats gets back to their cars barefoot from the shore. but when you go to protests concerts, festivals , if it is a left wing initiative or something appealing to us commie people some barefooter other than me will show up. maybe just a few ones but they're constantly present. yesterday i went to a concert festival of that genre and spotted a dude i know, who was around barefoot like me in the dirt , grass and gravel . we had some relaxed talk of course not about the lack of footwear.
in front of the stage i also spotted my ex thai boxe and kickboxing teacher, barefoot as many times i saw him around, dancing with her little daughter. also , barefoot kids playing soccer . i thought they removed their shoes just for playing, but when they exited the field remained barefoot around with no parents screaming about shoes. of course some girl was dancing shoeless in front of the stage too. and so far i never spotted so many barefoot ones at the same time.

years ago an italian political and humor singer, Giorgo Gaber, wrote a funny song about how much the italian obsession of reducing everything to a "left-wing thing" or a "right-wing thing" is stupid and pointless. to make an example, there are political divisions even between vintage scooter models, or between types of sausages, or coats. it is like wearing badges*. yes, we are nuts. but after years of costant observation i have come to the quite obvious conclusions that yes, showing up barefoot in places other than the sea has definitely a political meaning. at least in the cage of fools i live into.


* some time ago two idiots in the tube spotted a guy with a loden coat (a type of heavy green woolen sheet). they got confused about conventions, thought he was a communist and slain him. actually loden coats were the uniform of fascists but those jerk did not even know.

 

Since we have quite powerul showers and thunderstorms due to hot and humid weather conditions at the moment, one might think that there are more people taking off their shoes and turning to barefooting when surprised by rain. After all, we know that walking in flip-flops and sandals in wet conditions is rather awkward at least and quite dangerous (for being slippery and unsure), too.

But aside from myself, I haven't spotted other barefooters out there... well, at least some colleagues in the office kicked off their flips and sandals when sitting at the desk.

Hot weather can soften up not only tarmac and asphalt, but even dress codes. I am still waiting for other happy full barefooters to meet...

wiggling patient toes,

~*Ganesha*~

 

lol true one time while stopping at a semaphore with my yamaha 600 dirt bike which i usually kickstart and ride barefoot i managed to leave the print of my toes over the asphalt ! btw those who spot me barefoot on those narrow, toothed, press forged steel footrests made for boots award me with the weirdest looks all the times .

 

Today I spotted one male barefooter... however, the direct encounter was somewhat barred by public transport, since I was sitting barefoot in a tram on the ride home from Saturday shopping and he was riding his mountain bike barefoot, blond dreads flying in the wind...
If I had encountered him, it would've been a mutual exchange of "what's up dude"s, since I've known him for years. At least, this city knows three male barefooters (even though he's only barefoot in the warm seasons).
The other warm-season barefooter is a punk guy, regularly walking his three dogs barefoot in mild conditions. However, I didn't spot him today.

Fun to see were the stupid looks at his barefeet by people waiting for the tram when he passed the stops on his bike. Even more fun were the looks by the same people who got on the tram using an entrance near my seat and then spotting my barefeet... priceless!


Other than that one person, no more barefooters in town today...

Wiggling a barefoot shopper's toes,

~*Ganesha*~

 

lol ! yes looks can be real fun. this induces me into thinking that some of us barefooters also have a taste for pulling people's legs, besides the mere hedonistic pleasure of barefooting. yet it is appalling how much a meaningless thing like barefooting can be perceived by the common squarehead dullard of the street (which can be easily brainwashed by propaganda to tolerate the unbearable or to fear and hate inoffensive things, at will) as an outrageous provocation or a clear symptom of "something wrong".

the issue of barefooting and reactions reveals us how badly people needs to be set free from the door- and windowless jails that their parents, schools, and social pressure built into their heads to make voluntary slavery a part of their superego. bare feet are a little, trivial, (sole-)dirty issue but they invite us to reflect on the very meaning of hippiedom.


__________________
"when the finger points to the moon the morons gawk at the finger"

 

It seems I was a little early yesterday in making my final barefooters' count, since I did attend our more or less regular fantasy roleplaying game group, and one of our players showed up barefoot. She told me about enjoying walking barefoot the last two days, but was a little disappointed about her feet feeling a little sore, since she bares her feet only occasionally. I encouraged her by telling her that eventually her soles will strengthen and toughen up swiftly if she keeps it up.

So, that makes one male and one female barefooter plus myself... not a large number, but a start.

Wiggling toes ready for that (sole) strength roll with 1D20,

~*Ganesha*~