Saturday Comic

Today’s cartoon is from Red and Rover, a strip set more or less in the 1960s, when a lot more kids spent their entire summers barefoot.

It appeared just this past Tuesday, August 26, 2014.

Red and Rover, August 26, 2014

This was a common problem (and yes, in the comic strip, Red really has spent his entire summer barefoot). Additionally, with the reference to Hawaii, I wonder if the cartoonist sometimes listens in to barefooters’ discussions.

 

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Up a Tree

In its daily feature of a photo of people-about-town, that Columbus Dispatch picture will occasionally be of a barefooted person.

A couple of days ago it was of some kids building a tree fort at a local park.

Master Builders | At Clinton Como Park in Clintonville, these four are building a tree fort. In the tree are the Reider brothers — 7-year-old Koen, left, and 9-year-old Aiden. Still on the ground are the Moore brothers — 9-year-old Clay, left and 7-year-old River.

[Caption by the Dispatch. Photo Credit: Adam Cairns of the Dispatch.]

I thought it was rather neat (and encouraging) to see a bunch of kids playing barefoot. (And with no adults around hyperventilating, either.)

 

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Best Buy. Wussed Way.

Let me continue with yesterday’s Best Buy. Worst Way.

We pick up the story after I sent an email to Best Buy’s corporate offices about violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

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Best Buy. Worst Way.

I got kicked out of a Best Buy the other day. I imagine those who’ve been kicked out of other places have had similar experiences.

But this time I had the police called on me.

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Barefoot Truck Driving

Yesterday while writing about barefoot driving I described a ticket somebody got for doing so, and then how the judge allowed the policeman half an hour to find the actual statute before finally dismissing the ticket (because no such statute existed).

But what about when driving a commercial vehicle, like a semi?

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Drivin’ Down the Road

This is what I saw when I was driving down the road yesterday. Looks pretty comfortable.

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Saturday Comic

For our comic this weekend let’s go with an old stand-by, Dennis the Menace. This one is from July 11, 2003.

Dennis the Menace, July 11, 2003

Somehow I manage to make that decision every day . . .

 

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A 1940s Kids’ Museum

Here’s a good example of how kids still went completely barefoot not all that long ago. This is from an article in the April 9, 1945 issue of Life Magazine about a traveling nature museum in Alabama.

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Déjà P.U. All Over Again

Yesterday’s entry, Déjà Vu All Over Again, gave us a very interesting view of how restaurants reacted to bare feet back in the 1970s.

But of course there is always the sordid side.

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Déjà Vu All Over Again

I have what I think is a real treat today. It’s an article from a 1971 issue of the El Paso Herald-Post about restaurants in the area. Some will serve barefoot patrons, some won’t.

But it is something any of us could have written today. I’m 40 years obsolete!

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Dispatch Photos: Independence

One of my semi-regular features is to highlight when my local paper, The Columbus Dispatch, has a local, about-town picture of somebody barefooted. Today I have two of them.

Well, sort of.

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Melodramatic News Stories

I really hate it when newspeople use bare feet to transmit their own fears. We have two recent news stories where bare feet really have nothing to do with the story, but they were still highlighted as if they were particularly relevant and bad.

Worse yet, they must do it because they think their audience will respond to it.

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Saturday Comic

Our cartoon for today is from Off the Record, which was drawn by Carl Kuhn from 1935-1940, and by Ed Reed from 1946-1984. This one is from on June 3, 1968.

Off the Record, June 3, 1968

My only question is, if going barefoot is part of the tribe’s ways, why is the guy on the right wearing moccasins? (Actually, even moccasin-wearing tribes went barefoot a lot—why wear out a perfectly good pair of moccasins when you didn’t really need them?)

 

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Colorful Characters: Jerry Rubin

Many of you are probably too young to remember Jerry Rubin. He was one of the founders of the Youth International Party (the “Yippies”) to protest the Vietnam War.

He’s also probably at least partly one of the instigators of the proliferation of “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service” signs.

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Half-Shod Athletes

This just strikes me as odd. In the 1940s there was a sudden fad of going barefoot among high-jumpers and and pole-vaulters.

But only half-barefoot.

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