Toss the Shoes

This Well piece on running barefoot (which follows another story) is kind of old, but I forgot to notice it when it was new, and still think it's pretty interesting.

I guess the idea is that considering you put huge piles of pressure on your feet walking or running anyway, what's the difference if there's half an inch of rubber between your foot and the road?

One obvious difference is, at least the rubber will keep bits of broken glass from getting stuck in your feet. Also, there's a lot of grit and dirt out there, some of it kind of gross. We used to run around barefoot all the time when I was a kid, but we lived in the country. When we went into town, we had to put on shoes, because, as my mom once said, "people chew tobacco and spit on the sidewalks." 

She probably assumed people didn't want to see grubby barefoot children running around in the aisles of the supermarkets, either. There's no logical reason it would be any dirtier to have people walking around stores barefoot than tracking the same dirt in on their shoes, but somehow it's way more off-putting.

Probably a class issue. "No shirt, no shoes, no service" and all.

We had super tough feet, though, and didn't seem to suffer any ill effects from the lack of shoes. We'd run around on gravel roads and in prickly forests and through stubbly fallow wheat fields. Sometimes we did have to pick stickers out of our feet, but it was just one of the costs of doing fun.

We could justly sneer at anyone who was a tenderfoot. Also, we sometimes ate thistles. Just for the hell of it. Yeah, we were tough.

Now, years older and with the paper-thin soles of one who wears shoes everywhere outdoors, I myself am a tenderfoot. I limp with every step over gravel. Siiiiigh.

Maybe I should take up barefoot running to recapture the glory of my youth. The only problem is that I'd have to take up running, and no way.

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