not sure why, but they always look dumb to me. No matter where I see them. Tv, Shopping Malls, Gas station, doesn’t matter. Dumb
What about in the pool or at the beach?
ah, I guess not, well… still a little
I don’t particularly like wearing shoes. I go barefoot most of the time in my home, but if I’m leaving the house, on the shoes go. The idea of walking across a parking lot or through a store in bare feet is just nasty. Imagine what you’re stepping in!
Oh, agree, ick. I may be barefoot in my own home, where I know we vacuum, wash floors and had the carpets cleaned a bit ago, but a gas station? The street? What with the lovely (please imagine my dripping sarcasm here) habit people have of spitting up phlegm and leaving its glistening slimey grossness
Sorry. I really, really, really hate poeple who spit in public.
The sensation of walking on soft green grass or a warm sandy beach barefoot is lovely, but the rest of the time, I’m shod.
People walking barefoot in public, in areas other than the park, pool, or beach, creep me out. I could understand if you were raised out in the country, where everyone is too poor to buy shoes, and thus you find shoes to be uncomfortable. But dude, you’re from the suburbs. Walking on the hot asphalt cannot possibly more comfortable wearing a pair of sandals. Or hell, house slippers.
I assume that people who do this are either trying to present themselves as earthy and free spirited, or they just weren’t raised right.
I think people who walk around without shirts on also look dumb. I understand that people in California do this a lot.
I recently heard that to make it more family friendly, Six Flags was instituting policy that you had to wear a shirt. My first thought: you mean that wasn’t already in place? I can’t imagine what kind of dumb ass goes to Six Flags and walks around without a shirt on.
This strikes me as so odd.
I would never wear shoes if I had the option. Because of things like glass and dog shit and wads of spit, I generally wear flip-flops in public, but it’s not a hard-and-fast rule.
During the summer I am almost always barefoot whenever I am (a) in a park or otherwise grassy or sandy place, or (b) indoors, under any circumstances. (I once almost got thrown out of a really skeevy bar because I wouldn’t put my shoes back on - hey, I like dancing barefoot! Give me a break!) In fact I wear almost exclusively flip-flops in the summer to make bare feet easy to achieve if the circumstances warrant.
Although I must say I don’t often see barefoot people at gas stations, etc. I don’t generally (haven’t ever?) see(n) barefoot people in commercial establishments so maybe you’re talking about something I can’t totally relate to.
IMHO, people without shoes (and socks) look HOT. And I’m not even fussy about pedicures or clipped toenails or hairy toe knuckles. Just take 'em off and your appeal (for me) instantly increases tenfold.
The only time I ever tried going around with bare feet in public I was soundly chastised for it.
I was at a wedding reception. My feet were painfully swollen from the high-heeld shoes I was wearing, so I slipped them off when I was sitting at the table. Being near the door, I decided against putting them back on when I went out onto the patio for a smoke.
The father of the bride happened to come outside and see me there. “WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES?” he bellowed at me.
“Under the table, sir,” I whispered, throroughly cowed. He gave me such a look of disgust that I hurried back inside, crammed my feet into those painful shoes and never did it again.
I could have sworn they had this, I know I’ve seen people have to put their shirts back on in the DC Six Flags. Usually it’s after they have gotten soaked and want to dry ring out the shirt.
I don’t wear shoes all the time, I tend to take walks without shoes as well. If I’m walking with the baby I’ll not wear shoes, unless I’m going to the store. I also tend to only wear socks around the office, not that I get up much. I don’t like the way shoes feel, and my feet sweat. Thing is I used to have long hair so I’m sure people thought I was some sort of hippie or something.
On campus I see all sorts of pretentious dweebs walking around without shoes. You can always tell that they’re not even enjoying the sensation of bare feet, they just do it because they think it makes them look hip. Like anyone who would notice their shoelessness would ignore the fact that they wince with every step.
I have a prejudice against men who go shirtless in public - unless they’re working construction or something, they’re automatically garbage. Yes, I know it’s unreasonable and harsh.
George
No shoes.
No shirt.
Hey, are you from California?
I wouldn’t have given you a break, and definitely would have thrown you out of my bar.
In bars, particularly “really skeevy” ones, things like glasses and bottles tend to break. The last thing the bar needs is some drunk chick to slice her foot open on an unseen piece of glass and end up being sued by a litigious patron.
So for a business, they’re less concerned with how comfortable your unshod tootsies are than with the potential lawsuit.
I never go without shoes (aside from on the beach), because I have the tenderest footsies you’ll ever run into. I once tried walking barefoot around the neighborhood for a few weeks, in an effort to toughen them up a little. I didn’t work at all.
When my dad was a kid, he loved to go barefoot. He’s barefoot in his first grade picture. My grandmother was apparently mortified.
Bare feet don’t bother me, aside from envy.
I’ve known a few graduate students that were barefooters. (The worse the winter weather, the more common they were of course!) So I associate barefooting with having the smarts.
As a kid, I once went all summer barefoot except for “family trips”. It was quite easy to adjust to. Didn’t seem to affect my later getting a PhD and all that.
Wow. I can’t believe that the father of the bride chastised one of the guests for going barefoot, for 3 reasons. One, unless I’m endangering someone, who the heck cares? Two, who embarasses a guest like that? Three: a majority of all the weddings I’ve been to end with a large number of the women present dancing barefoot, especially the bride and the wedding party.
Tastes of Chocolate - barefoot when ever possible.
I like wearing sandals in the summer, and sometimes I’ll kick them off to walk across the grass at the park, but other than that, I prefer to keep my shoes/sandals on when outside the house. Otherwise, I’m just asking for trouble, as I’m prone to callouses and other foot problems/injuries/what-have-you. The only people I’ve seen go barefoot in public, in L.A. at least, are babies in strollers/slings, pretentious teenage/college-aged girls (usually in Westwood or the more"bohemian" parts of town), women of all ages on the dance floor at clubs, wedding receptions or quinceaneras, and the homeless.
Years ago, when I worked at the library checkout counter at the college I attended, I noticed some female students would take off their shoes upon sitting at the study carrels. This practice stopped temporarily after a foot fetishist was very publicly banned from the library for harassing these students by kneeling under the carrels and touching and kissing their bare feet. When he was finally caught in the act and ejected from the library, he claimed he was merely “praying”.
Yep, that’s why I stopped going to bars and now only go to places I can dance barefoot (pretty much exclusively weddings and outdoor parties).
It has definitely limited my options, but overall I am much happier.
I’m not wearing shoes.