<p>The</a> New York Times > Education > Slide Show > Where The Shoe Doesn't Fit</p>
<p>but stepping on slugs :p</p>
<p>Haha,</p>
<p>I only wore shoes about 3 times during my first quarter at Antioch. My feet got so tough, I could walk over broken glass without any problems.</p>
<p>I guess Reed and Antioch are too far North for hookworm to be a problem, but ewwww. I've done a 180 since my own barefoot days - it's a health thing. When you come into a house with dirty shoes you take them off. You can't exactly ask your host to let you wash your feet...</p>
<p>Wwjd.......</p>
<p>I have really tender feet. Have never been able to toughen them up. Our rocky beaches mean agony!</p>
<p>As long as putting your feet on tables isn't as common as it is in those pictures, that's kind of neat.</p>
<p>Some kids at my school in Pittsburgh did this. A bunch of us called them hobbits because it seemed the tops of all of their feet were ungodly hairy.</p>
<p>I never even noticed anyone going barefoot ( and as a mom- I didn't think about it cause I am supposed to set a good example)</p>
<p>I also wouldn't put my feet on tables either- I expect that was possibly posed but you never know.</p>
<p>It does get hot in Portland though- & I always go barefoot in the house- and wear sandals with bare legs as much as I can get away with in the summer.
( although working in the yard I wear boots- for support and cause if I didn't I would have to take a sander to my feet)</p>
<p>Barefoot in the gym? I've never heard of a gym where that's allowed... I certainly wouldn't encourage it. Sounds like a great way to spread athlete's foot, warts, and more serious diseases like hookworm or even MRSA.</p>
<p>I wear soft birkenstocks - going barefoot is overrated!!!!</p>
<p>Wwjd.......</p>
<p>lol. I guess I was envisioning myself with my foot in someone's powder room sink.</p>
<p>I'm a leftish person myself at heart, but it always cracks me up when kids who supposedly walk to the beat of their own drummers, who balk at convention, and pride themselves on their individuality....do so with such conformity!</p>
<p>^^^Lol, starbright, I've made the same observation many many times. You said it perfectly.</p>