I was in the Trafford Centre on Thursday (first time for about 3 months after I got asked to leave cos I was breaching "Health and Safety" regulations...). I was barefoot, but carrying flip-flops (just in case). We had a lovely evening sauntering round the shops and decided to go for dinner afterwards. I had no issues at the restaurant being barefoot. Having not seen another barefooter in the UK for nearly a year I was beginning to think no-one else in the UK was a barefooter. But then to my suprise, another couple turn up at the table next to us and the lady was also barefoot, wearing a skirt too, so it was fairly obivous! She sat facing away from me, so I had a perfect view of her bare soles! And then, to top off an excellent evening, as my wife and I were walking back to the car we passed a group of three girls, all barefoot and carrying their shoes too. Don't know what the point of this post is, but just thought I'd share my stories to let you know that, even if you think you are alone in this lifestyle, their are others out there who go barefoot in public, even if only occasionally.
It is always very cheering to me to see the first sights of bare feet and legs after a long winter, not that it doesn't similarly cheer me in other seasons! But in spring it's much alike to the first view of early spring bulbs, even better, because I always admit there's just a touch of the erotic to the former, while the latter (early flowers) lifts my spirits another way. Alas, it will be some weeks yet for me here, before I see either, except on myself and those few other brave souls. (It snowed again today, but only a small one, the perfect kind to step around in. But it fell on top of the remaining glacier from earlier. Takes a while to be finished with this.
Gah, I confess it's been a long time since I've seen another person going barefoot, at least completely at random. There are one or two other folks besides myself at church who hate wearing shoes and will frequently pad around the church sanctuary in bare feet. Speaking of which, tomorrow is Palm Sunday, and for the celebration of this service, instead of removing my flip-flops as I normally do, I'm not even going to bring them out at all but will be completely barefoot during the entirety of the service (including when I go up to give the Scripture reading). Anyway, about this time last year, I did make sure to visit the campus where I used to go to grad school. Late in my time there, I started leaving the shoes behind when I went onto campus and would just go around barefoot the whole time. I don't recall seeing any others do that. Yet when I went back to visit last year (less than a year after I'd graduated), I saw several people meandering about campus in their bare feet! And I'm not talking about someone sitting on the couch barefooted with their shoes on the floor beneath them. No, I mean seeing people in the eatery, in the library, on the bus--with no shoes anywhere in sight. The couple girls whom I saw barefoot had little bags, but the bags appeared to be too small to carry any kind of footwear. Could it have been that I started a little trend and didn't even know it?
We've been experiencing warmer than usual weather here lately, saw a female barefooter just yesterday. She was walking on a sidewalk carrying some kind of handbag, possibly on her way to class near the University of Arizona. Standing in a parking lot, I yeld out loud from a distance, "I like your shoes"! She thanked me and proceed up the street. Later when driving by in my truck, I passed her up the road, continuing along in her barefeet. Cool!
Here in Wisconsin, it's finally warm enough to melt a significant amount of snow. Last weekend, I was barefoot when I took the trash out, and I splashed through some of the puddles on my way back inside. The ground is still cold, but those few minutes of barefooting outdoors felt good.
Luckily, we've had a mild winter here (Eeastern UK), so i've been able to have a bf. hike every week throughout the winter, the first time i've been able to do that, so global warming has a silver lining for me!
temperature are rising and lately I afforded myself a few long bf walks in the woods. there i happened to cross almost each day a group of kids and young fellows looking very amused of my unusual shoeunwear , until yesterday while taking a longer trip by bicycle ad no shoes with a friend of mine (she is shod but open minded) , once more the group showed up , but this time three of them were barefoot . they smiled and waved at me, so i guess i made some potential disciples. the bf girl of the bunch , squatting in the middle of a small stone bridge, was just putting her shoes back on but the two boys seemingly decided to challenge rocks and gravel :2thumbsup:
First afternoon of a 2-week vacation and I was desperate to spend it barefoot, even though only 45F here in the Northeast. Crisscrossed downtown happily barefoot on all sorts of city paving---felt crunchy, cool, and good! Warmer conditions can only change "good" to EXCELLENT!
