Barefooting - "Then" and Now

Greetings Tribe,
This is my first post in this board, though I've been posting to bulleting and interent boards since about 1990. Briefly. . .
This board, and this forum/threads seem really well subscribed and full of a lot of frequent and interesting posts.
By the "Then", I mean the -original- barefoot hippie daze of about 1968 to about 1975. Yes, I was one of them. A result of all those experiences then, were I was "liberalized", and I developed not only an enjoyment of doing a good bit of barefooting m'self, as well as a thorough appreciation of ladies bravely going barefoot outdoors too. Sadly, as I've gotten older (and into an "office" job for the last couple of decades) my opportunities to be barefoot have been less common.
This runs along with the societal norms that we've seen fewer folks barefooting each year for the last 20 to 30!
I don't mean to use this chance to "cross-post" but I have 2 very good friends who have launched their own Yahoo group called Barefootgirlmedia. It's at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/barefootgirlmedia/

The mods are Dennis McLean (formerly Cramer) and his wife, who goes by Belle on thie list. Dennis was the creator of the Mara graphic art books, which featured a lady who was by choice barefoot all the time, and everywhere. Sadly the book series came to a close, and they are headed for another counry to try new ventures. They have about 160 or so members on that list, but very few posters as yet. We are a gentle group, and would very much appreciate any of you all to at least come over and peak at the postings we've got going in that group. I will send the name and list topic of this group to them as well, so they may come and venture here as well.

Lastly, I am writing a historical novel about the Santa Barbara, California area in about 1969-1970. My leading characters are two barefoot 18 year old ladies, just heading into their first year at UCSB, but a LOT of stuff was going on in those times, and in that place. I will post more about my "project" in the Hippies Forum topic of the board, but if any of you in this topic are familiar with the times or the Santa Barbara area, please feel free to send something here or directly to me at spensera@adelphia.net.

nods, and peace,
Spenser [still looking down after -all- these years]

 

Spenser! Welcome to this forum. I don't know if you will remember me from some of the other message boards (the most notable being run by Rachel on tripod, though we've crossed paths in other forums as well). I tried to apply for membership to that group, but I never received an approval and so I figured maybe it was simply a closed affair. With this post from you I suppose I'll give another try to get in. I haven't spoken to Dennis in some time either. We have at least one other member of those old days here as well, but this is a nice group of folks so I'm sure you'll feel right at home here. Anyhow, I hope to see you in this forum, and in the group on yahoo. Take care,

 

Indeed Matthew, I remember you were one of the frequent posters over on Rachel's old board. Sadly that was in a forum that had been swallowed up so many times over the years by the larger and ever more distant of the "corporate" type boards. I'm not sure who found these ez-board type forums but they seem to be a lot friendlier and the notes far more frequent than Yahoo groups! It's been a long time, but I have even retained a few of the old postings, such as those of Oxford Claudia's in some document files.

Belle's the only 'mod' over there, and I see she's gotten to your ap already, thanks. And I hope that we can get that lil' group going to a bit. I will be happy to contribute over here as much as I can. It's been too long that these thoughts, dreams, and experiences have not had a haven to be spoken about.

Spenser

 

Have to say - I've never seen your name spelt like that before - is it of German origin or something?

 

"Spenser" (nic.) after Edmund Spenser, 16th century English Elizabethan poet, author of the massive "Faerie Queene" saga, in Spenserian sonnet, which is attributed to him. Buried next to Chaucer in Westminster. Don't know if he was much of a barefooter himself, but I've used the logo for the last decade and a half.

Spens..

 

Were you also on one of the usenet boards, alt.lifestyle.barefoot ? I gave up on most of those, taken over by spam and worse. Nice hearing from California---my brief time there was 1968-1970, and that was Yosemite, but I got quite a feel for that awesome state. Also nice to know I'm not the oldest one here~~~~~~~Welcome!

 

i was barefoot the other day, and my dad and his friends were talking outside they are around 49 yrs old. and one of them goes, dont ur feet hurt? ur on gravel rocks. and i say no im used to it, adn they all go ohh yea i remember always being barefoot, the only time i ever wore shoes was to go to school. i thought that was soo cool because my dad used to go barefoot like me when he was my age. so in the 60s 70s idk when he was a teenager haha
peace~