Cypress Bark Mulch

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to offer a special deal on Cypress Bark Mulch. We have an excess supply and need to unload.

Actually, my favorite tree got blasted over the weekend.

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Saturday Comic

Our comic for this weekend comes from the feature Out Our Way by J. R. Williams. This one appeared on July 9, 1938.

Out Our Way, July 9, 1938

That was a time when they still remembered the torture of putting shoes back on after having been barefoot for so long.

 

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More on the Barefoot Schoolboy

Yesterday I presented the New York Times story about Harold Smith, whose father Victor petitioned the Jersey City Board of Education to allow Harold, age 10, to go barefoot to school there.

Here’s another story, also from before the Board met to decide his fate, with a bit more information.

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A Barefoot Schoolboy

These days practically all schools require shoes. That’s just the way it is, and I suspect it is that way just because . . . that’s just the way it has been.

A lot of that is just cultural. Here’s a story from the September 12, 1903 New York Times about a father petitioning the school to let his son attend his Jersey City school barefoot. Just the thought was enough to make the news . . . in New York City. Meanwhile, in rural districts all over America, large numbers of children were attending school barefoot without their school districts batting an eye.

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Animous to Bare Feet

Here’s a story from June of 1969, from the time when hippies and bare feet were in full swing.

And those in authority were not reluctant to arrest you for going barefooted, even if they had to make stuff up.

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A Deep Cut

I haven’t been doing much hiking lately—I’ve just had other things to do and I haven’t made it as much of a priority. But I made it to Hocking Hills last week to do about 8½ miles, and then yesterday I went to Great Seal State Park and did about 5 miles.

And at Great Seal I had something happen that hasn’t happened in along time: I sliced the sole of my foot.

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Colorful Characters: Judge Parker Fulton

This is from the March 15, 1954 issue of Life Magazine:

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Saturday Comic

Our Saturday Comic comes from Monday’s Zits.

It gets at an essential truth about stinky feet. (Hint: it’s not because they are bare.)

Zits, June 16, 2014

 

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A Remembrance of Times Past

As barefootedness disappeared back in the early 1900s you would see all sorts of essays bemoaning the trend. Going barefoot really was considered one of life’s great pleasures.

Here is a remembrance from the fall of 1936.

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Dispatch Photo: WaterWorld Cup

It’s been a while since the Columbus Dispatch featured a barefoot person in their about-town photographs. But they finally had another one yesterday.

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Violating Social Conventions

One thing that’s not always appreciated is that context really makes a difference when it comes to acceptance to bare feet. Bare feet are accepted when people expect bare feet to be there, and they are often rejected in contexts in which they are not expected.

Then, when those bare feet are seen in unexpected locations, those against them have to rationalize an excuse, any excuse, why they are bad.

Thus, those who go barefooted are really usually battling social convention, not any intrinsic problem with being barefooted.

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Results of the Barefoot Survey

Anemone Cerridwen has finished analyzing the data from her barefoot survey (and what a task it was!—there was a lot to analyze).

You can look at the results yourself here.

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Barefoot in Court

I got a comment (via Facebook) from a lawyer on my blog entry, Jury Duty in Sneakers. It wasn’t about the sneakers, but (from what I can tell) something I said about how trying to be a barefoot juror really doesn’t fit the definition of contempt of court.

So, how dangerous is it to attempt to be a barefoot juror?

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Saturday Comic

Our comic for the weekend comes from the comic strip Rose is Rose.

It was published June 4, 2013.

Rose is Rose, June 4, 2013

I think she’s he’s onto something.

[As always, click on the picture for the larger, more readable version.]

[As vas points out in a comment, the character portrayed is Pasquale, who is a boy. I had just looked at the hair and made an assumption. It’s not a strip I read very often.]

 

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Jury Duty in Sneakers

I’ve written before about how we might go about doing jury duty barefoot. In Barefoot Jury Duty?, I looked at some of the attire requirements around the country and how being a barefoot juror really doesn’t fit the definition of contempt (not that a judge couldn’t go after you anyways). In Call to (Jury) Duty, I talked about what to do when refused entry by a guard who thinks there is a rule against going barefoot in a courthouse.

We now have a real case in which people called to jury duty were refused entry because they were wearing sneakers.

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