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The woman was close to my age, and she was flitting around the RV park barefoot. I watched from my trailer window, jealousy filling my heart. I love going barefoot, but somewhere along life’s way I had lost the ability.
This love is hard to describe, but bare footers everywhere will understand. There is a feeling of freedom that comes with not wearing shoes, and for the first 30 years of my life I experienced this freedom every summer.
Growing up on a farm and being allowed to roam without shoes hooked me. When my family moved to the Twin Cities, I kept the habit. Despite cement sidewalks and driveways, alleys and street baseball, every spring I discarded shoes and stayed barefoot.
Obviously, as I entered adulthood, shoes were a necessity most of the time. Through my years at the University, at my part-time jobs, and finally as a teacher, I wore shoes until the end of the workday. Then it was back to barefoot.
During the 1960’s bare footedness was popularized by the hippie movement. Although people everywhere seemed to be shoeless, this movement wasn’t well received by the general public. Businesses even posted No Shoes-No Service signs. I stuck to my old-fashioned brand of barefoot.
Moving to Tucker Lake for a year’s adventure didn’t stop me. All that summer, I trotted around barefoot— unless, of course, Dick and I hiked through the woods or went to town, but in and around the cabin, my feet were naked.
However, when I moved closer to town, Somehow, I gave up the habit. I quit trying to toughen my feet in the spring. Too many rocks…too cold…too much snow and ice. Whatever the reasons, I gave up this lovely habit.
Now as I eyeballed this woman, prancing around the campground, I wondered. Could I start barefooting again? I even found an article on the Internet which added to my enthusiasm. It was titled,” Can going barefoot keep your mind young?”
The article stated that going barefoot is a lesser known way to keep your mind sharp. Apparently, our nervous systems are especially sensitive to our feet. The more we wear shoes the more information from our feet to our brains is lost.
I decided to try barefooting again, and it’s a work in progress. I still have trouble with the gravel driveway.
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