For whatever reason as I was growing up, I HATED not wearing shoes, though my Depression Era parents walked through the house in stockinged or nylon feet, and berated me for insisting on wearing shoes. Ironically, there were a few situations where I wanted to go barefoot, and was scolded and ordered to wear shoes.
When I was in college, maybe because I was free of my parents restrictions, I wore shoes less in the dorms.
This continued in my 20s and 30s and 40s including a few barefoot excursions, and most of the time I would take my shoes off when at my home. As I got older this would get less and less.
Things have changed in my 50s. I almost always wear either flip flops or sneakers with shorts whole at home. I don’t feel comfortable being shoeless because it feels creepy, or is this more a rebellion against my parents. I just don’t want to be that creepy “older barefoot guy”.
I’ve also met older women that have taken off their shoes and suddenly forgotten them and couldn’t find them, while maybe a little drunk, I find it hard to believe you can’t remember you took your shoes off.
I’m guessing with the quarantine, there’s people who have not worn shoes for weeks are you one of those? Also like me are you slightly humiliated when taking off your shoes? Or worse not wearing them for days on end?
I’ve probably told this story before - when I was 19 I slipped down the staircase at home, hooked my little toe into the bannisters, and probably broke it (Doctor: “well, I could X-ray it, but it’s not going to make any difference to the actual treatment”. Which was pretty much ‘try not to walk on it too much’)
Actual first words out of the doctor’s mouth:
“What were you doing running round the house with no shoes on?”
:eek: :eek: :eek:
Anyway, I’m pretty much living the shoeless dream at the moment. If I’m inside a house, I’m probably going to be finding a way to be barefoot, or socked. Shoes are uncomfortable and constricting (IMO). Of course, I might think differently if I lived somewhere where winter was a thing.
Something similar happened to me except for some reason they did do an X-ray and the doctor came in, looked at the X-ray for at most three seconds and said, “It’s not broken but even if it was we wouldn’t do anything”, looked annoyed I’d wasted his time and walked off. I didn’t fucking know there was no point getting an X-ray, I wasn’t a doctor. Still aren’t even.
Also before that the nurse said to me, oh yeah that looks bad, that toe is not in a good way. Then I told her no, it was the other foot, my toes are just kind of fucked up.
Shoes off inside, it’s more comfortable and keeps the house cleaner. People have objected because they have smelly feet or fucked up toes or whatever but I think they need to deal with the problem or just learn to love their fucked up feet.
Maybe we can have foot baths at our front doors. Put a little lime in there.
And on the topic of boners with forum selection, not my thing but that’s fine.
When I was a kid in the 70s taking your shoes off in someone else’s house would have been considered very rude and asking people to take their shoes off in your house would have made you look quite weird
As for tracking dirt inside, that’s what doormats are there to prevent
What, you moved the thread but didn’t correct the homophone error in the title? Or was it a deliberate pun?
Anyhow, I strongly prefer going barefoot. I grew up in suburban Connecticut (Lyme disease central, but we didn’t know about it at the time) and spent most of the summers barefoot, in shorts and a t-shirt. I’d go into the yard barefoot and even across the street to friends’ houses (and the road surface was asphalt covered in small pebbles, so painful on the feet).
There was a walk-up ice cream stand we’d go to in the car, with us kids in the back, barefoot. And later when I started to drive, I’d do so barefoot whenever possible.
For a while I would wear canvas boat shoes all summer because they were cooler (temperature-wise) than leather sneakers and in fact I just ordered a new pair from Amazon an hour ago.
Japanese culture has a strong sense of separation between “indoors” and “outdoors,” so it’s standard practice there for people to remove their shoes after coming in the front door. This even applies at some traditional restaurants.
Wife is Japanese, so generally our shoes come off once we come inside the house. If I’m moving between the basement and the outdoors, I get to keep my shoes on, but in this case I’m on walking on tile or on the protective plastic runner that goes down the basement stairs; no wandering into the kitchen or the carpeted areas of the house.
My toes are long and dexterous; I pick things up with them, and otherwise use them for various tasks. I view wearing shoes as equivalent to going about wearing boxing gloves all day long.
I rarely wear shoes while I’m in the house, though I also rarely go barefoot (I’m nearly always wearing socks, at least).
I like being able to take my shoes off when away from home, but I’m also cognizant of not wanting to share any unforeseen foot odor with others. So, I only do it if, say, I’m riding in the car with my wife, or by myself in an office at work.
As a kid and even into my late teens, I was always barefoot whenever possible. Sidewalk, blacktop parking lot, scorching sand at the beach; always barefoot.
Now that I’ve spent most of the time in the subsequent years wearing high heels, my ffet don’t naturally like to be flat on the floor. I find I walk on my toes a bit if unless I make an effort not to. So, not barefoot too often,but it has nothing to do with being appropriate or not.
I would never be barefoot in someone else’s house unless expressly invited to. I certainly can’t think of business establishment where it’d be ok to enter with no shoes on. Obviously a spa or something requires naked tootsies at some point.
In Paris I was berated for wearing swim shoes to the entry hallway to the pool. Apparently one needs to be naked foot to cross a small moat to get to the pool.
Stocking feet indoors - rugs last longer and my toes get cold without them. Wellington boots for trudging through snow. Grubby sneakers, never worn indoor, to push a mower on the meadow or spray ant and weed killers around the house foundation. Narrow shoes for driving so my large feet don’t jam pedals. For creek-hopping, sprinkler-playing, PT sessions, or public or hotel showers and pool areas, I choose Teva sandals. (I wore those in a rustic tropical village and got ringworm.) I go barefoot to frighten the grandkids. Don footwear as needed.
Even some individuals, not necessarily in Japan, do not like people wearing shoes inside their place, so, if you are not sure, it could not hurt to ask.
Barefoot outside (obviously not restaurants and shops) is occasionally done- at least I’ve seen it- but I don’t recommend it unless you have a good eye for avoiding broken glass.