Socks?

I actually like to wear socks - and to walk around outside in my sock feet in warm weather. It gives me all the comfort of being shoeless, while keeping my feet clean and protecting my soles from being fried off. Usually I wear 2 pairs of white socks, the outer pair with gray bottoms. Soemtimes I wear gray or black socks outside without shoes. That day will come for this year within a month or so, I hope.

 

Socks are basically just another form of shoes. Soft shoes, but shoes nonetheless. Your total foot is covered, your toes are cramped, and your feet are in a dark, damp place, the same as regular shoes. Wearing socks without shoes will not only ruin the socks in a very short time, it looks really stupid, IMHO.

I never could understand people who will take their shoes off, usually at home, but leave their socks on and walk all around with only socks on. After having been cooped up in shoes all day, the socks are usually gross and smell anyway, so why wouldn't someone just take those dirty socks off when the shoes come off. And if they're not dirty enough having absorbed foot sweat all day from the inside and having rubbed against the filthy inside of shoes on the outside, walking around in them quickly gets them dirtier than ever with resulting stains on the bottoms that will usually never wash out.

There is only one time when anybody should ever wear socks. And that is when one is forced to wear regular closed-toe shoes. At least socks offer some form of insulation for the bare feet against the dirty, filthy, germ-ridden, smelly inside of shoes.

Other than that, socks are a worthless form of shoes that should never be worn.

 

You're talking about the dirt on socks, and in shoes, how's that different, or worse than dirty bare feet?

 

That's an excellent question. A lot of it depends on your definition or meaning when you refer to "dirty." Unfortunately, "dirty" usually means much more than just being covered by the natural part of earth's covering which is soil or dust, sometimes referred to as "dirt." Having said that, dirt (I'll call it dirt, meaning pretty much anything that might be on the ground or the floor) that gets the outside bottom of socks and dirt that gets onto the bottoms of bare feet is generally pretty much the same. The big difference there is that once dirt gets on socks from such exposure to the ground, it pretty much will never wash out. Of course that's especially noticeable with white socks. The darkness or stain from dirt on white or light colored socks pretty much stays in them forever. A strong bleach might work to clean them up again, but bleach is very damaging to fabric. On the other hand, bare feet walking in exactly the same place would pick up the same dirt, but it's not permanent by any means. Bare feet can be easily cleaned. And even without cleaning or scrubbing, since the skin on the bottoms of feet is living tissue, it is self-cleaning. There are sweat glands there, and dead skin cells continually slough off, along with any superficial contamination of them. (And guess where all that sweat and dead cells go when the feet are closed up in socks and/or shoes.) Even if you walk in something that will not immediately wash off the feet, for example, fresh slurry seal on asphalt, it will eventually disappear from the bottoms of feet just due to the natural cleansing and purifying action of the skin. Try walking in socks in something like that and see how long the stain stays on socks (forever).

As to shoes being dirty, the bottoms of shoes are exposed to everything that bare feet or socks would be exposed to when walking on the same surface. Sometimes dirt on the bottoms of shoes is not all that visible like it would be on socks or bare feet, because soles of shoes are usually dark colored. And there are vast differences in the material that shoe soles are made from, as well as differences in sole treads that have some effect on how much dirt will stick to them or be easily seen. But it's there - and the big difference with shoes is that those soles are never washed. That same dirt or other contamination is constantly being picked up and tracked all around everywhere we go. And when we remove our shoes, we usually touch those filthy soles with our bare hands and think nothing of it.

But the insides of shoes are the worst. We don't usually think of them as "dirty," but the insides of shoes are a virtual petri dish of bacteria and fungus growth due to constant sweat and dead skin cell accumulation. And that's always quite apparent when someone removes shoes that have been worn for a while only to encounter the unpleasant smell of "stinky feet." It's not the feet causing it. It's the shoes. Now that is indeed "dirty" in every possible negative sense of the word.

 

What about in a cold house? Socks are useful for keeping my feet warm. It's better than jacking the heat (and heating bill) up just because my feet are cold. Maybe you live in a warm climate, but here in Michigan, the winters are long and cold and socks are my friend.

 

I like socks for the forementioned reason; it's too cold in the house for socks! My feet are freezing when I'm barefoot during the winter. Plus, the socks get all the dirt on them and I can just throw them in the wash. The floors are nasty so I would rather not walk barefoot just yet. Then again, I could just vaccum! LOL

Peace & Love

 

It's really all a matter of what you're used to. Just like people, when you're walking around outside barefoot in chilly weather, asking, "Aren't your feet cold?" Even when it's not cold enough to even wear a heavy coat, someone just assumes your feet must be cold. My usual response is "No, I'm used to it." But if the situation calls for more explanation, I'll usually say that as long as it's not cold enough to require covering my hands with gloves or mittens, there's no reason that my feet need any additional covering for warmth. Most people, who aren't barefooters, wear shoes and socks even in hot weather and think nothing of how hot their feet are inside the shoes. They just don't notice it. If you're used to going barefoot all the time, you just don't notice it when the temperatures get a little colder.

I do currently live in a relatively warm climate, but I've lived in lots of places, including Michigan. When I lived in Michigan, I used to walk outside in the snow. Not for long periods of time, of course, because there is some danger of frostbite, but just walking out to the mailbox or something barefoot in the snow is no big deal.

When your house is so cold that you need socks on, I guess you need mittens and a warm cap on as well, right? That would make sense. But what doesn't make sense is the need to cover one extremity on your body to keep it warm but leave the others exposed to the cold. Again, it's all a matter of what you're used to and how important the benefits of being barefoot are to you.

 

I guess you have a point there, about wearing mittens and such inside (though I will have a hat on sometimes). It's true that it's all about what you're used to. I don't barefoot it in the winter much, maybe occasionally for a few seconds putting the dog out (who won't piss unless you go outside too...damn dog). Mostly that's out of laziness, not wanting to put shoes on for the 2 minutes I'll be outside. Plus it's kind of funny to leave footprints in the snow and hear people's reactions, haha.

But I'm not really against all footwear. I hate shoes, probably for all the same reasons you do; though in the cold I appreciate the protection they give. But socks, especially clean, fresh socks don't bother me much and don't seem detrimental. They don't make me walk unnnaturally, and I don't find that my feet sweat much when they're cold.

 

What about driving? I guess this seems like an obvious question, huh? What I mean is, that I've heard that in some places you're not supposed to drive barefoot, for whatever reason. What does everyone do about that? I have a pair of flip-flops in my car in the warmer months when I'm barefoot frequently.

 

My dog likes to wear socks

 

You can drive barefoot, it's not against the law.

 

In some states, such as New York, it supposedly is; however, I have not researched it myself and don't know the validity of it. I'm pretty sure it is illegal in that state, though.

 

I can't believe this myth keeps coming up. It is not illegal to drive barefoot in any state in the United States.

I sure hope you mean you have the flip-flops with you to make someone think you're not driving barefoot (totally unnecessary, see above). I hope you're not implying that you actually wear flip-flops when driving. If so, you're an accident just waiting to happen. Very dangerous things on your feet anytime, but especially if you're trying to drive in them.

It is NOT illegal to drive barefoot in New York or any other state.

Think about this, folks. WHY would it be illegal to drive barefoot? How does that make any sense that there could be some kind of law like that? How could driving barefoot be anything but much safer than having some cumbersome footwear on your feet? Requiring shoes on your feet to drive makes about as much sense as requiring mittens on your hands to drive.

 

How much sense does it make that weed is illegal? Or that you, by law, HAVE to wear a seatbelt? Or that women can't go topless? Or that you can't park facing the "wrong way" on a street (I actually was fined for that)?

There's a lot of stupid fucking laws in this country, man...

 

Okay, on the whole flip-flops are unsafe thing... This will (could?) seem like a totally stupid question to some of you, undoubtedly, from the response I got to my comment about flip flops in my car (and no, I've never actually driven with them on) but what makes them so unsafe to drive in or anything else for that matter? Please be kind to the poor unwitting fool!

 

I agree with you about a lot of stupid laws. The ones you mentioned are generally the type of laws in which the government feels it must protect you from yourself. The government is wise, the people governed are stupid. Like children who aren't mature enough to make decisions related to their own lives or bodies so must have a wise parent tell them what they can and cannot do. Weed is illegal because it alters ones mind (similar to what alcohol does). Should the government care if someone wants to get high when it hurts no one else? Not in my opinion. Seatbelts must be worn because they save people from being injured. Should the government care if someone wants to take the risk? Not in my opinion. A woman can't go topless because it's indecent. Should the government care if someone doesn't subscribe to that particular kind of belief or morality which is generally based on religion? Not in my opinion. You can't park facing the wrong way because you are so stupid that you may just pull out directly into a head-on collision because you forgot that in America people drive on the right side of the street. Should the government care how people park as long as it's not blocking traffic? Not in my opinion.

But driving barefoot? I guess the government hasn't really come up with any way to figure out how driving barefoot hurts anyone at all, least of all the person doing it.

 

Yeah. Stupid laws are everywhere, and I agree with you, bfrank, that the governemt does tend to look at citizens as children rather than adults who can handle themselves. Granted, there's stupid people out there that really can't handle themselves, but there's always the point of everyone has a right to choose what to do with their bodies and property and so on, so long as it does not -actually- hurt someone, but instead, everything is 'in theory'.

 

Well, flip-flops are not very good as far as footwear goes. I've seen so many people trip while wearing them...done it myself. In a car, I'm not really sure why it'd be dangerous, aside the fact that they can easily slip off your foot, possibly at a critical time. Shoes in general aren't "bad" for driving though they do give you less "feel" for the pedal, and, depending on the shoe, less grip.

 

when i take off my shoes, i HAVE to take off my socks too; i can't stand to wear just socks!

 

Yeah, I can see them slipping off, and I guess that could potentially cause a prob, hadn't really thought of that...