From: Greg Smith
Subject: Tales of the Perpetual barefooter
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 94 21:18:19 PDT

Hello, again.  This is Greg.

I had a habit back in my college days of going barefoot as much as possible 
to as many places as possible.  I would mentally keep a record of places I
had gone, and had other places in mind where I wanted to go if I could get
away with it.

My favorite was to hit the grocery store.  I never saw any signs posted about
No Shoes, .... so I figured 'What the heck?!'  There floor was always dirty
enough to satisfy me, anyway.  My feet were always black by the time I came out
of there.  I loved it.

Once I went cruising into K-Mart.  Now, I had been barefoot on several previous
occasions here with no incidents.  But this time was different.  Wearing my 
sleeveless half-shirt, short shorts, with my Walkman cranked up, feeling good
about being free and comfortable (right down to the soles!), I went rocking
in the front door, got a few steps inside, and, over the noise blasting out
of my Walkman 'phones, I heard a voice repeatedly saying, 'Sir....Sir....'
So, deciding to return to reality for a moment, I removed the 'phones and spun
around to hear the lady behind the customer service counter saying, 'You can't
come in here without your shoes."  

So, feeling a little embarrassed, I decided to hide it by acting just a little
cocky and saying, "That's a new one!"  Then I walked out, went across the 
street to the Gibson's department store and bought what K-Mart would have sold
me if they hadn't been so small-minded.  (I mean REALLY!  What harm could I
possibly do without my shoes?)  I frequented the Gibson's from time to time
in bare feet whenever possible, and never had a problem with them.

The only other place I've had trouble was at the Hyper-Mart (giant Wal-Mart)
in Kansas City.  I had been in there barefoot a few times (so had a few others).
One day I just couldn't see myself wearing shoes any longer.  I should've 
listened to that little voice because I knew something was wrong this day.  I 
walked in the front door like I knew exactly what I was doing, hoping no one
would notice anything missing, but the 'troll' at the front door said,
'You have to have something on your feet.'  I thought, 'No I don't, REALLY!'
but decided not to argue (you never argue with a 'troll', they get paid to be
a pain in our sides.  So I returned with my sandals on my feet.

It's funny how he seemed to remember me after that.  Everytime I went in, 
always in sandals, he always looked to make sure.  What a job!


Possibly the 'craziest' foot thing I ever did (in public, that is!) was to
go into a Wal-Mart barefoot and buy a pair of thongs (flaps, you name 'em,
depends on what part of the country you're in; you know what I'm talking about)
I went back to the shoe department.  I decided not to try them on since the
guys behind the cameras might freak, so I just put them up to my (dirty) soles
to size them up.  Then I walked (barefoot) up to the counter and paid for them.
I don't think the check-out girl had any idea what I was up to.  Too cool!

Hey, everybody!  Write me and tell me the longest time you've ever gone 
barefoot.  I mean no sandals, no mocassins, no socks.  Just bare feet.
My official record is 10 days.  I went longer than that once, but forgot just
exactly how long it was between 'wearings.'  Those were the good ole days
after high school and before real jobs:  nothing to do but go barefoot 
constantly!  Ain't life great?

I once had a job where I would actually go to work barefoot.  This was not
a beach or pool job, this was in a warehouse!  There were two or three of us
guys who hated to wear shoes (a couples of the women, too), so he figured
'no harm done' to let us run.  We started going in wearing shoes like a'
regular job, but the shoes didn't stay on long.  After a few weeks of that, 
we decided to just go in barefoot!  We even had certain places around town
where we'd go for lunch barefoot because they didn't care!  That was a great
job.  Crappy pay, but great perks.

Well, I'll shut up for now.  Thanks for reading, fellow barefoot fanatics.
I'll send more later.  Anybody wanna write back and tell me your stories.
I'd love to hear how many places and what kind of places you folks are
getting away with going 'natural.'

Greg