I came across this newspaper column from 1941. It’s an interesting look at barefooting outside the big city.
And it turns out the author makes a prediction that hits pretty close to the mark.
The column is from the Iowa City Press-Citizen and is called Dale Harrison’s New York. It starts as a paeon to county life.
NEW YORK—Things New Yorkers miss: Spiced crabapples; a tramp in the woods questing wildflowers — the haughty jack-in-the-pulpits, the sprightly johnny jump-ups, sturdy petalled blue violets, and the gentle hepaticas; the ecstasy of driving down a winding, leaf-roofed lane in a buggy, behind a horse that jogs gently along with the reins wrapped around the whip; the hour before nightfall, in a flat-bottomed boat resting on an still, glassy lake, with the bluegills hungry and fearless, being able, on a hot night, to go to sleep with the doors open, and nothing but a hook on the screen door to ward off trespassers, watching express trains speed through town, and that iron arm that just from the mail car and snatches the pouch that carries our few letters away to the great world and that first glorious day of spring when mother says that we can leave off our shoes and stockings and go barefoot.
And here comes the prediction. I’ve emphasized it.
When science gets time, it will probably find that going barefoot is a dangerous, disease-inviting business and parents will become alarmed and small boys won’t have much fun. My knowledge of germs is of the sketchiest. All I know is what the scientists write. The air is full of germs. I know that. I never saw any germs, but I’ll take the doc’s word for it. I’m sure the dirt and grime which attach themselves to the feet of barefoot boys—feet which in no time at all are cut and bruised so that even a lackadaisical germ could crawl right into the blood stream—are full of disease. Some day science will state this truth solemnly. On the day after science scares the socks back onto barefoot boys, a lively-witted merchandiser will come out with a cellophane stocking, or something along that line, so that boys can think they’re barefoot without any of the dangers thereof.
Toe-shoes, anybody?
The only thing wrong about that is that is really wasn’t “science” that did the scaring, but podiatrists and parents.
The rest of the article contains further descriptions of going barefoot.
I was never too enthusiastic over going barefoot. If there was a rusty nail or a broken glass anywhere in the country it was sure to be under my feet before I’d taken three barefooted steps. Other village children there were, however, who didn’t know the feel of a shoe on their feet from early spring to late autumn. Dirt would cake on the bottoms of their feet and between their toes, defying what half-hearted efforts at laving there might be.
Not a few boys and girls went barefoot from necessity. The summer was a chance for their hard-working parents to get caught up on the budget.
None of the pretty and demure girls went barefoot, modesty being a trait encouraged in our village. There were several girls from the other side of the tracks, though, who could show as many callouses, cuts and bruises on their feet as any boy in town. Call them tomboys, if you wish, yet they really weren’t. They were just girls who liked to go barefoot.
There were even a few old men in our village who weren’t ashamed to go around without shoes and socks in the summertime. True, they weren’t the dignified type. One I remember, had a nondescript beard that bore the stains of tobacco juice dating back dozens of years, I’m sure. Another barefoot octagenarian was an Indian who wore his hair—long and black—in braids. I imagine he’s passed to the Happy Hunting grounds long ago. He was a great fellow. He could blow fire from his mouth. He used to do it once a year for the townsfolk, on Fourth of July. It invariably made him very ill. I always used to think it was a very appropriate way to celebrate the Fourth. There isn’t one American in a million who can blow fire out of his mouth.
I don’t know how much of that is recollection and how much of it is
current at that time (1941). But it certainly describes a time
(and a place—out of the city) when bare feet on kids were everywhere.
Why does the author mention bare feet together with modesty, shame and dignity? If you knew how this saddens me.
You come very close to sighting your sources with the name of the newspaper, name of article and the year. Providing the date the article was published might get you there. Embedding a link would also work, but I realize this is not always possible. Copyright aside, some may want to read the original.
Good, thought provoking article either way.
“. . . might get you there.”
Depends on where I want to be. (This is a blog, not a research article.)
This is a full copy of the article.
vas: I think the author mentions them because that’s the way it is. Particularly back then, when women and girls were really pressured to be modest, showing any “unnecessary” skin was considered immodest. And even today, when we look at new barefooters, we know about shame and concern for what others might think.
I agree that it is saddening. But it also seems endemic.
I am rather curious about the way he talks about constant cuts, that hasn’t been my experience and I doubt it was theirs. It sounds like he was someone who went barefoot very infrequently and is thoroughly exaggerating the number of cuts you get in that very human way where one negative instance becomes a hundred. I really doubt that he kept slashing his feet open as much as he says. He reminds me of someone I met last night who tried going barefoot one time years ago, had a minor bad experience, and stopped. Never mind the fact that he is now in constant agony from wearing shoes almost 24/7, one gash on his toe that healed up in a few days was enough to put him off for life.
“Depends on where I want to be. (This is a blog, not a research article.)”
It might not be, but often people turn to blogs for research so just adding a few citations as you type could end up helping convince someone. I have collected a lot of my own research now, but back when I was trying to assemble a case to take to my collage to show going barefoot was safe I had incredible problems tracking down the stuff you have and mostly didn’t manage it.