I'm trying to remember shoes I wore..

...in my flower child years. Funny...I can't remember any.

I think I went barefoot 10 months out of the year. I was still going barefoot when I was 28 years old without thinking a thing about it. One day I was going to the grocery store with my sister (who lived in another state). When we were starting out the door she asked me "aren't you going to put on some shoes"? It had never occurred to me to put on shoes. She tried to shame me so bad that I remember I started wearing shoes some when I went out to places like that. Then came along the signs "no shirt, no shoes, no service". What was up with that? What is the harm in going barefoot? I still throw off my shoes the minute I walk in the house, and only wear socks on the coldest days.

All I can remember are some guys wearing beatle boots and guys and girls wearing sandals. Of course sneakers have been around forever, but can't remember much about shoes other than that. I never liked sneakers much, I don't know why.

 

When I lived in NYC and SF, I mainly wore buffalo-hide sandals from India. They were only available in NYC and had a leather ring where the toe went in and another strap between the third and fourth toe (I think).


Barefoot? If you had lived in NYC or SF you sure as hell would've given that idea up right quick-- broken glass, dog shit, Bowery-bum shit, piss--well, you get the picture. Some did, of course, which only goes to prove my contention that a lot of hippies were idiots.

 

and if there were no shoes, the shoeless foot trodder would have fine callouses to protect the tender parts, and the shoe bound feet would be sensitive to the slightest pebble.
There are degress of idiocracy and it is in every level of humanity. It is not exclusive to the shoeless. Some may think waking up to a bottle of Vodka every morning is a sign of idiocracy. Exposing your self to liver damage, cardio-vascular and Blood Presure disorders( just to mention a few).. And let's not forget imparred thinking paterns and distorted judgements.
Brightest Blessings
sh

 

Now, now, Shameless! I never called you an idiot! (A bad speller, perhaps.) I know all about going barefoot-- when I was a mere whipper-snapper, I ran barefoot most of the summer. You're right about the callouses-- I could walk on hot summer asphalt and gravel roads with no problem.


BUT-- I wasn't walking on broken wine bottles, and what good do callouses do when you step in wino puke or dog shit?

Jeez! I wish this unthinking glorification of the hippies would end!

But-- there are no coincidences: my next novel (which I'm really getting the urge to write) will put the "glorification" to rest. And, all this bilgewash and balderdash I read right here will be my impetus.

See: out of bad comes good! Ying-yang, plus-minus, positive-negative, male-female,Howdy Doody- Sponge Bob, Ding-Dong, Yippee-yay, Abba-Dabba-Do-- ah... you get the message.

BTW-- I was sober for almost 5 days! (Of course, for three of them I was too sick to drink, anyhow.) Unfortunately, I worked today and need a few to get to sleep. So, beware-- I may get silly. I've been awake going on 36 hours--just couldn't sleep from my painful knees and legs.

I'll sleep tonight, by cracky!

 

Barefootin' is also not exclusive to hippies, country folk have been goin' barefoot for centuries. We are even born barefoot. Wow think of the posibilities.. now if I could only spell.. my life would be so much richer. I wonder if it really matters in the big picture.. If my spellin' will keep me from safe passage to the other side. I can only hope that it don't make a shit and I'll get there just by being the magnificent sweet natured, gental, peacelovin' human bein' that I am.

 

Try barefoot in the desert.Even when it's not blistering you have the cholla and the goatheads,then it's the diamondbacks and the sidewinders.Step fast.

 

Shameless, dear! See!....You can do it if you want! (You misspelled gentle, BTW--BUT! It may have been a typo.)


I'm not a grammar-Nazi, but BY GOD! There must be some standards less the whole fucking civilization will collapse.

EXCUSE ME-I JUST GOT AN URGENT CALL!...

(Mumbling phone conversation. Thudly turns white, begins trembling. He sadly types....)

"I've been informed that the whole fucking Western civilization has just threw it's hand in, folded, cashed in it's chips for lack of interest."

(Thudly, head downcast, walks away unsteadily, muttering, "I guess this ruins my trip down to Sheepboot, Texas to meet my Internet sweetie, ShamelessHeifer. And, I was even going to bring my own 200-year-old-Pennsylvanian black gum stump with me. And, as the coyotes howl, Willie Nelson croaks and the Bushes lead the world into the Promised Land, Thudly weeps soundlessly,wishing that all his taxes were in Texas.

Hopefully,Thudly's Yankee Irish heartthrob, will instead move up north where we have ice, snow, the devious beaver, liberals, all the crack you can smoke, all the deer you can shoot and New Jersey, YIPPIE!......SUDDENLY--- CRASH! SPLINTER! BOOM!(Jackbooted thugs, AKA our friends--the police, crash the party.)

ATTENTION! THIS IS THE INTERNET POLICE! YOU WILL LISTEN!

"Thudly has been removed for the sake of public safety, for his own safety and because he has a sense of humor which will be not only unnecessary in the future world, but the reason for "social re-adjustment".

Thudly goes away, resigned to his fate, but humming at first, then singing this ever popular ditty that swept the civilized world at the cusp of the Year Of The Wickerbill--1966:

"Oh, when I was twenty one,
Oh, when I was twenty one,
I never had lots of money,
But I always had lots of fun!"

Thudly was thrown into an unmarked van and never seen again. But we who were there will never forget his off-key voice fading Doppler-effect-wise as he and the van vanished.

THIS SHOULD BE A LESSON FOR YOU ALL!

Postscript:

The next day Thudly's battered corpse was dropped on the sidewalk next to "McClaskey's Drink 'Em Up "before it opened. Pinned to Thudly's hairy, masculine, well-developed chest was this note:

"Sorry, we fucked up-- we thought he was Ted Kennedy. What da fuck!-- Who can tell one beer-bellied, whisky-nosed red-faced mick from another?"

And, school-children, this is how great American legends are born!

"Study hard tonight boyos and girlos--there shall be a test tomorrah!"

 

Who?
Or as they'll write in the papers:

 

What?

Or as I read on the Devil's Mirror.

 

Poor unfortunate Thudly, The Luck of the Irish I suppose. Now his book will become a best seller and he left his royalities to his cats.. they have won after all. It was their plan to take over and now they rule supreamly. Woe, the world if they excape. Today Thudly (or do they call you Burl or perhaps daddy) Tomorrow the world. (shudder)
sh

 

The cats are unhappy today-- I have banished them from the house until the first frost next fall.


As far as my possessions-- my kids are already arguing among themselves as to who gets what. In front of me, no less.

Maybe I'll leave everything to charity, then charity can raffle it off and give me a proper burial

 

My mother wasn't even cold yet and my brother and sister were ripping my house apart looking for what they wanted and going through her things. I could tell that was well planned also.

When this house goes they will be getting it all. Ready or not. A cleared mind has no place in cluttered life. OPPS! Watch out for that fresh wisdom pie.

 

Barefoot and Mocs

 

I enjoy your posts immensely...spelling and all.

 

Ah..yes...I do remember wearing moccasins now. Thanks.

 

I lived at the beach in the sixties and seventies and mostly went barefoot, my feet became leather and would resist hot pavement, reefs, rocks, etc. It's funny though, I once got a fairly large piece of glass in the arch of my foot. I couldn't get it out and it is still there. It showed up in a xray several years ago. Doesn't seem to bother me at all.

 

Thank you Peeroette, I see a common ground.. a Texas gal, a mom going back to her hippie roots, the same age.. and don't care about spellin'..
get outta the saddle thud she's mine!!!..lol..

I don't know if anyone will want my stuff when I'm gone. I mean, all my notes on healing/majick and my soap and candle molds. My precious books on The Craft, My Cards Runes and Crystals. All my Oils and Potions. My books and my poetry. A life time of work.
I suppose I'll leave many of my personal posessions to my Grand Daughters, like the things I have of their mommys and things my mama left to me. I suppose my son and his lovey Cindy will get the rest. Maybe they will just throw it all in the burn pile..

I love Mocs.. the trouble with them tho, is ya can feel the rocks and sharp objects through the thin sole. And when they get wet, they're wet all day and then they get stiff. But they are excellent to scuff are the city in or outside when it's dry.. but don't step in any fresh piles, cuz its hard to scrap off of mocs..lol..
Brightest Blessings
sh

 

Thudly, I'm glad you have exiled your felines to the outdoors. Maybe you will find some peace. But then again, I bet you will be outside with them bc you miss the little shits.

I can't be in the same room with a cat, I'm very allergic. It's something to do with their siliva. When I was growing up my mother has dozens of cats. I was always sick with what they thought was Hay Fever. I would itch and cough and gasp for air, I dug at my itchy/watery eyes till they bled and felt miserable most of the time.
When I moved away from home the 'Hay Fever' went away untill I came into contact with a cat or where a cat had been. I was even allergic to some people that had cats.
When I would go to rent a house if there was cats in there before I could not step foot inside. My kids wern't allow inside houses with cats bc they would bring in cats hairs. It's amazing how much a cat allergy limits ya. Now don't get me wrong.. I don't blame the cat for me being allergic to it, I think cats are cool, from afar. I don't like them poopin' in my flower beds tho.. I throw rocks at them.. bad cats.
sh

 

Cats are the devil's familiars.

 

I can only give you a late 60's/early 70's MICHIGAN viewpoint of hippy footwear, as I was not living in all 50 states simultaneously. Maybe hyperspace beings can do that, but not me.

AS A SIDE-NOTE: I can only temporarily "hyperspace" it, with powerful psychedelics, like d-LSD-tartrate-25. Spiritual evolution leads one closer to "hyperspace evolution". Popular, standard-fare discussions were about these issues, with the 60's/70's hipsters. On the other hand, many had no clues about these issues and just enjoyed having fun, getting "buzzed" and relating to human beings, as human beings, and not mindless-spiritless, corporate robots.

The summers (and/or warm weather) in MICHIGAN is sort of short. There is warmer weather hip footwear and colder weather hip footwear. In warmer weather, a seemingly majority of baby-booming-hip-teenieboppers wore absolutely NO FOOTWER, or just plainly went "barefootin'". Sandals were a distant second. Many males went shirtless, and thus today, you see numerous signs in commercial stores that state: NO SHOES, NO SHIRT, NO SERVICE. In other words, no hippys and long-hairs are tolerated! Or maybe they just liked some standards of health codes enforced.

I preferred NOT to go barefoot, too much, except at the beach, or maybe just on some nice, soft grass, or indoors. Although, with going barefoot on grass, you still have to watch out for "pickers" (or weeds with small thorns and spikes) and lawns freshly sprayed with chemical fertilizers and weed-killers. Chemical burns and/or poisoning is not too healthful!

THUDLY mentioned the dangers of going barefoot in New York City. I agree with him, here. To me, these dangers were: bottle caps, broken glass, nails, tacks, staples, animal droppings and pissings, used diapers, sharp stones, bubble gum, pop spills, toxic chemical spills, hot pavement and so forth, to infinity, plus black foot bottoms.

In the desert regions, it's almost impossible to go barefootin', with: extremely high ground temperatures, sharp rocks and gravel, scorpions, rattlesnakes, plus, plants that have razer-sharp (and sometimes sewing-needle-like) thorns and cacti spikes. While riding my 10-speed bike, near Tempe, Arizona, I ran over a patch of sharp plant thorns and it blew my tires out! In the DEATH VALLEY region of southern California, summer ground temperatures can reach close to the boiling point (about 175 Degrees F.?)! At these temperatures, rubber-soled shoes begin to melt! OUCH!!!

I prefer some sort of good foot protection. Many of my generation preferred the apparent "freedom" of going barefoot. The only sandals I had were made from dark brown-dyed leather, with a used tire bottom! It was a good way to re-cycle used tires!

Most country-folk always liked to go barefootin' (as shameless heifer stated)! However, years ago when I worked in a fast food resturant, I met and would always talk to a WEST VIRGINNY woman who was related to the HATFIELD's and MCCOY's. She had a job involved with HIGH SCHOOL security and was close friends with the local police department. Once she told me that the HATFIELD's and MCCOY's never really went barefoot and didn't eat grits, because they were too far north! She also possessed a MAGNUM pistol for self-protection and donated a bunch a shotguns to the same local police department. She also, liked to go to the Country Festival in downtown Detroit. She was interesting to talk to.

In high school, I wore: leather boot moccasins, with soft-leather soles (from the TAOS Native American tribe), leather-suede CHUKKABOOTS (with CREPE-soles) and later on, ROOTS "Earth Shoes", which were high-quality leather shoes MADE IN CANADA, with real-rubber soles and the heel part of the shoe was designed to be lower than the front, for more "natural walking". MOONBOOTS (nylon outerskin, soft flannel insides and polyurthane-foam inner insulation, with a deep tread pattern on the bottom came later, in the 70's).

Cowboy boots (FRYE's brand) and/or tall-riding-type boots (like pictured on GEORGE HARRISON's album: ALL THINGS MUST PASS) were popular with many hip males. I just wore the moccasins, as boots, with soft leather soles, which almost felt like going barefoot. Shameless heifer is right, with these style of moccasins, you could feel stones easily and getting them wet, was not a good idea! Some groovin' chicks wore GOGO boots. "These boots were made for walkin', and that's just what they'll do." - NANCY SINATRA

KEEP ON TRUCKIN! In whatever style of HIP footwear of your chose! Or lack thereof . . .