Going barefoot in the old days
the following is a comment from someone in the USA:
"When I was a kid (a long time ago), in the summertime I only put on shoes on Sunday to go to church."
isn't that wonderful? that was before my time though, but i've heard that was indeed the case. as soon as school was over in the spring, everyone would leave their shoes off and not wear them again until when they went back in the fall except for those who went to church on sundays.
i've also heard that in the old days many even went barefoot to school or even to church perhaps? after all didn't God tell Moses to take off his sandals before stepping on holy ground? so why do people have to wear shoes to church nowadays?
kids in those days certainly knew how to have a good time going barefoot all the time or at least most of the time. sadly today almost everyone wears shoes all year. they surely don't know what they're missing.
maybe someone reading this can relate their experiences going barefoot in the old days. and if there are kids reading, for heaven's sakes, have mercy on your feet, enjoy life even more, and go barefoot at least once in a while!
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"The old days" huh? Depends what you mean by the "old days" ... 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, most kids went barefoot at least some of the time during the summer, often the whole summer. But then you grew up and had to wear shoes, as people in those times got dressed up when going out most of the time. But they all had that collective memory of going barefoot as kids. No explanation needed as to why, or how, it was obvious that gradually getting used to it in the spring made your feet tough by summer. Then in the late 1960s a segment of the adult population started going barefoot - the hippies. Continuing to go barefoot into adulthood and breaking all the "unwritten social rules" of how you must dress in public, and how you must wear your hair, made the conservative older population of the USA quite angry. And combine that with the fact that they were against the Vietnam war, made the average person associate bare feet in public with being un-patriotic. So signs began to appear on doors - "no hippies allowed", "no long haired men", "no bare feet". Then by 1970, the "hippie" fashion (or more precicely, anti-fashion) hit the mainstream. Soon most young people looked and dressed like hippies, because it was cool to do so, even if most did not actually belong to any hippie communes and had little interest in the politics and anti war movement. So you would see lots of young people in their teens and twenties, - mostly young women, from what I remember, I was a teenager in the 1970s - going about their daily business, running errands and shopping barefoot. In malls, grocery stores, banks, in the streets of most downtown areas, including New York City. So you did miss those so-called "old days". Once the 1980s came along, there was a rapid decline in the numbers of people going barefoot in public, as styles changed, and fancy athletic shoes became hip and cool to wear. Amazing how people quickly forgot about going barefoot in public, and how common it was, and today most young people don't even know this even happened.
ReplyDeleteOh boy, the good old days. Well growing up in the 60's and 70's, I saw plenty of bare soles. What changed was the coming of "thongs", or "flip-flops" as they are known today, and as I remember it, everyone was wearing them during the summer and to school. Seeing someone barefoot anywhere, as it is today, become a rarity.
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