Barefoot in Seattle
by sharleen wl I had previously heard that Seattle was a barefoot friendly city, so I was excited when I had the chance to prove it for myself early last summer. My girlfriend Sandra and I were going on a cruise to Alaska leaving from Seattle. As you know from one of my previous posts ( barefoot thanksgiving break ) I'm bi, and Sandra who was my childhood best friend, is lesbian. Anyway, we were planning to stay in Seattle for a day before the cruise, and we already booked a hotel. It was a quaint little waterfront hotel, and we were lucky to get an ocean view so that we could watch ships pass by. Sandra has relatives in Seattle whom she wanted to spend some time with, so she flew in a day earlier. After being denied boarding barefoot on my trip to Houston the year before ( barefoot thanksgiving break ), I didn't bother trying it this time. I just put on flip flops to board, and took them off again once I was on the plane. I deplaned in Seattle and walked around the airport...
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Thank you Tania for writing the article and posting the interesting picture. I saw a similar sign (without the 'no skirt' part) in Galveston, Texas some years ago but unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me then, and I don't remember the store name.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the national barefoot day. It's really nothing special. It's actually a gimmick for a pro-shoes campaign which is ironic. But like you said, hopefully it will encourage more people to enjoy going barefoot.
ReplyDeleteThe shoe charity thing also gives us a quick excuse when one doesn't have the time or energy to properly promote barefoot health, freedom, and enjoyment.
Usually I will refer a questioner to Dr. Howell's book and/or give them some links to pro-barefoot articles while taking the time to set a positive example. I also show them a few of the newspaper articles that have been published about my wife's and my own bare feet.
But when I'm really in a hurry or have determined that the individual is not worth the time or just plain too closed minded I'll just quickly say "I'm not wearing shoes until...........
-All the troops come home
-All kids have a good pair to wear
-World peace is achieved
-Etc.
Tom's et al has made my life easier and more efficient!
Where YOU live is still much easier, most people over 45 years of age remember many kids as well as adults going almost everywhere in bare feet even in the big city.
We live in a northern U.S. industrial city, and the only time bare feet were seen out and about in town was in the late 60's thru early 70's. Unfortunately most people are either too old to remember, or they are only in their sixties but took part in the 60's so never really remembered much of anything about it.
The "no skirt" part is interesting. It's only a small step away from summarizing it all as "no clothes, no problem!" Not that nudity is so horrible, but it opens up another can of worms.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad we don't have any of those signs (positive or negative) in the Netherlands. It was never really a 'thing' like that. Unfortunately barefooting is very uncommon, but it also isn't as problematic as it is for e.g. Americans. So far I've always been treated like any other customer in shops.
I do catch some attention. You'll certainly get some dirty looks. Especially ironic when smokers do it. But they don't overstep boundaries, and you don't need to build up very thick skin for most interactions that come about to feel positive.
I've also caught some police attention. They seem to think that everything that isn't normal is suspicious. Gah. How liberal. They can't do much, but after a few encounters it does get annoying.
I'm glad there are so many people out there who are also barefooters because my mom thinks I'm a bit nutty for not wearing shoes and going everywhere in my Barefoot Feet. Maybe someday she will think otherwise when my footwear gets as big and well known as Toms!
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