Wondering this... Country songs have a lot of people (read: hot girls) barefoot in sundresses in fields. Seems like a lot of songs are like this nowadays ( Randy Hauser, song called "cool" by Blaine something or other, Strawberry Wine, Shania Twain etc etc) Wondering from our southern posters if the southern girls are barefoot most of the time as these songs lead me to believe...and want to make me move to Georgia
I live in the south and i rarely see it...I havent been to GA though since i was a kid..might be that way there
I think it is more common here than back home in NY. Not by observation but just based on the fact that it's warmer in VA.
I'm also from the south and went to college even in Mississippi. I have only personally known one barefooter in my entire life, and that was when I was at college, actually. And now that we're both out of college, she doesn't really go barefoot anymore. But now I do. I wish I had seen the light back then. But no, the answer to the question, is it is extremely UNcommon even here in the south, even in the more liberal/hippie type areas in Memphis, TN.
Unfortunately, this hasn't been a common thing since the 1970's down here. I even see lots of people wearing shoes on the beaches in NC and SC.
I think barefooting went out after the 70's, as there were fewer choices in regards to footwear. Just walk into any sporting goods store nowadays and you will see entire walls of sneakers, which from my memory did not exist back then. For many of us teens of the 70's, you either wore your good shoes for church and school, or your tennis shoes for gym class. If you opted for neither one, you just went barefoot.
The kids go barefoot, but the teens and adults don't unless they are playing ball in a park. Barefoot in the house is still common. I never wear shoes unless I'm shopping, skating (sometimes), or doing business down town.
Although I live now in the UK I'm originally from Montgomery, Alabama. I moved to San Francisco when I was 12 but I remember my now deceased Grandmother telling me that barefeet were for 'children and black-folk' (not that I agree with that statement) and that the 'sign of a young lady was a decent set of shoes'. She was just part of a generation struggling to appear better and imitate the rich, shoes were to her an important part of that.
no wonder that «va-nu-pieds» amounts in french to no less than a tramp . But Pharaos were routinely barefoot having their sandals carried by a servant (safety shoes lol, imagine ramses being kicked out of walmart ). Emperor Nero also used to go around shoeless (according to Suetonius,source: de vita duodecim Caesarum libri VIII )
