From: "Jay"
Subject: Scouts and Barefeet
Date: Tue, 08 Mar 2005 14:52:18 -0000

I was in Scouts in the early 70's.  I can't say that we went 
barefoot a great deal, but there were a few instances that we 
enjoyed the freedom of going barefoot.  Our meetings were almost 
always in full scout uniform.  Once summer came we did relax to 
shorts and a scout t-shirt.  I don't ever remember going to a 
meeting barefoot, and I wasn't a sandal wearer then, so I was 
sneakers for me.  I remember a few kids wearing sandals, and 
occasionally someone might show up barefoot.  There were a few times 
when we didn't have "official" meetings but we'd meet up at the 
school and play softball.  During those times, most of us would 
either show up barefoot, or would take off whatever shoes we wore 
and play barefoot on the softball diamond.  

On campouts, a few of us went barefoot just around the immediate 
campsite, but again it was pretty controlled.  Since we always 
camped during the school year, more often than not, it was pretty 
cold.  Once we got caught in a huge rainstorm, and almost everybody 
went barefoot that day.  We always had a spring campout at a state 
park, and we spent most of our time at the lakefront, so we were 
usually barefoot.

The only campout I remember doing a lot of barefooting was one where 
it was just my patrol.  It was late summer, and we had it on some 
land owned by one of the boy's in my patrol.  We didn't have one of 
the Scoutmasters with us, just the boy's Dad who owned the land.  
There were only 5 other boys besides me, so the one adult was 
enough.  We got there on Friday night as usual, and everything was 
going like a regular campout.  We got up Saturday morning, and 
several of us got out of our tents barefoot.  The adult leader 
didn't say anything, so we cooked breakfast and then cleaned up.  He 
then told us that we could go swimming at the pond just down the 
hill, and if we wanted we could all just skinny dip.  Well that's 
all we needed to hear.  Clothes went flying and we all ran down the 
hill totally nude.  After we spent most of the morning down there, 
we came back up to the campsite.  No one wanted to put their clothes 
back on, so the boy asked his Dad if we could all just stay nude.  
He agreed and we stayed nude and barefoot until we left on Sunday.  
We even went into the fast food place we stopped barefoot on our way 
home.  After that, our patrol tried to go barefoot a little more, 
and even went nude just a bit in our campsite, but we didn't have 
enough freedom to go barefoot around the camp.

My son's experience in scouts seemed to be not quite as controlled 
as mine.  More of the boys and leaders wore sandals at meetings and 
campouts.  There seemed to be more boys who would go barefoot around 
campsites, but the sandals weren't far away.  

It's really a mixed bag, sort of hit-or-miss.  It all depends on the 
attitude of the Scoutmaster.  If you have one that's open to going 
barefoot, then it's not a big deal.  If you have one that wants it 
to be para-military and strict, then forget it.  I think a barefoot 
troop would be a great idea!

Barefoot-n-Nude in Texas!