picked up anthony for our days together and he tied to get away without taking shoes-his mama caught him and said get some shoes and he said 'Nevah!' and ran off- LOL-but we always take some just in case-even if we dont wear them-never know where we'll go on our days off...
Just come back from Kenya - great place, nice people. Managed to go barefoot a bit, tho had to be careful where and when since in poorer areas the sewage isn't underground ! Doing sport with the teenagers was cool - my feet survived, playing volleyball on hot hard dry mud & stones was a bit punishing, the boys found it funny that I got sore feet after a while - when I explained that my feet are way tougher than most in the UK they were stunned !
like to hear more about your kenya adventures-this sewage problem is why bare feet get such bad publicity-shoddies see pictures of disease from these poorer countires and assume we face the same risks in our civilized societies...not so, our local safeay seldom has human waste laying around-though as the population of street bums increases so does the risk, so ever vigilant...
on a brighter note, we have a comic book shop just blocks from our house now and the boy makes a point of walking there barefoot regularly. big step up for him, and his soles are hard as leather now...many of the n'hood kids go barefoot as well. which they can as we keep this street clean and calm and quiet...keep the bad element out and take back your streets, if you will...
Hi, when it came to the slums; i didnt go barefoot since there was too much infection risk; quite a lot of locals only had flip flops and a few of the kids were barefoot through the mud and erm everything else ! We did a sports day which was awesome and lots of the youth ran, footballed, volleyballed etc barefoot - Kenya produces great runners who outpaced us on gravel even when we wore trainers :-) My feet are a bit tough but 1500 m on stones was a bit much - one of the boys made me dead envious when we compared feet (he was amazed to see a wealthy white person barefoot !) - I had not realised soles could get that thick and tough !!!!!!!! I must sort out the photos sometime since there should be some good ones and they certainly prove that Nike dont have the last word ! I'm glad your boy is getting more confident, I lived by the sea and still did not go barefoot as much as i would have liked since i worried what people would think (still do in fact !). Does he go out with his friends barefoot and what do they think, have any negative comments put him off ? Nice to hear that his soles are as hard as leather, I'm sure kids have some inbuilt speed-callusing feature that means that they leave adults feet looking a bit weedy after walking about barefoot for about 3 minutes ;-)
he and a few of the kids in the 'hood are barefoot all the time-this has gone on all summer...sadly the colder weather is already setting in...
-and we talk about what people might think or say, about bare feet or whatever, and he knows to always consider the source, take things with a grain of salt, and ignore them or tell them to piss off when necessary...
No more adventures this year, back to work and sorting out the new house - and paying for it ! But i do get to sort thro the photos which will be a good memory.
I glad your lad has friends that go barefoot, i had a couple, tho more would have been nice. My friend Leon at junior school was to blame for me getting into being baefoot since he never wore shoes at home, and gradually i did the same at his house, then progressed to walking there and back barefoot (about 2 miles) in the summer which gave me my first pleasant experience of having tough soles ! We used to go out barefoot and see which of us would wimp out first.
Sadly, not long before miserable, cold wet weather will stop me running barefoot ... ... already i think my soles have passed their peak of toughness. At least the summer holiday gives kids a decent chance to get used to it - and return to school with tough feet, which was cool when we had to do our first gym lesson at high school barefoot since 99% of the class found the floor: cold, gritty, etc etc - Leon & I were left wondering what the fuss was about. Most of our class thought we were mad, which we happily reinforced on cross country when we took our trainers off (once away from the school & staff) and did the course barefoot !
have some new neighbors-very rude, common people from what i've seen so far-had to be told to quit hammering and blaring music at 10pm one night (they're remodeling their house)-anyway, t'other day their daughter was out in the street with my kid and about a dozen others from the 'hood-all in bare feet, but her-and her dad made a point of coming out front and yelling at her 'do you have your shoes on? Good, just checking."-as if to make a point that his family can afford shoes or something, or the rest of us are savages, or who knows...i hate people who stand outside and yell for their kids, anyway...dont think they'll have a very easy time in our neighborhood...
Hope they improve ! My place and neghbours are all new and nice so far - we are all banging about a bit doing furniture etc so none of us can complain !
Hope your boy has a +ve influence on the daughter, maybe she will respond to some back to front peer presure and try being barefoot; my experience of kids from teaching and scouting is that before they get too many teenage hang-ups they accept all sorts; some of the 10 - 12 year olds would be barefoot at camp or in the boats, our older coooler teens were not so laid back and a bit dismissive ! However when the older boys tried to do something barefoot at camp they discovered that a summer wearing trainers creates very soft feet whereas some of our juniors had leathery feet impervious to most things - it is probably bad enough being 15 and struggling to look cool walking on a gravel track, then having a 12 year old run past smiling ... ...
I notice that your lads mum does not seem to approve; does this make things hard for you / him ? Does she have any rational arguments against - hopefully his feet are tough enough not to get hurt and give her an excuse to shoe him ???!
his mum is a lost cause- i long ago gave up trying to help anybody over 40, and her especially. she's just so immature & irresponsible...i never put her down in front of him, of course, but i always let it be known that 'certain people' do c'ertain things' in 'certain ways' that just aren't right, and which i disagree with-he gets the hint mostly, or will, as he gets older...i dont need everybody doing things my way, but when they do it in a way that inconveniences others, or sets a bad example for the kids, then it bothers me...
on another note, as some of you know i work at a juvenile correctional facility. the kids are really acting out lately: gang activity, violence, sexual activity, and most of it not being much of a concern to the youth-they ignore it, silently support it, or are just used to it-but the other day a kid dared to walk across the dorm barefoot and you'd have thought he was the worst criminal ever! many of his peers rose up and started shouting at him, and asking me if I wasnt going to consequence him for that-I just shook my head and laughed at their screwed up priorities...
I guess I'm confused, I thought A lived with you ? what does A think of his mom's "anti-barefoot" stance (no pun) ?
as for the "kid that dared", was he just pushing things or just being a teenager ? and what did the others say when you refused to "punish" the offender ?
He lives with me half the week. he doesnt pay his mom much kind-she's so screwy she forgets whats she's told him from one minute to the next-she's really missing the best years of his life and it's a shame-when i'm with him , all my attention is focused on him and he eats it up...
and the kid at work is just a screwball teen-he's a bit schizo so he really doesnt care what his peers think-i get along with him because he knows i'm crazy too-and nobody dares question me, kids or staff, or heaven help the fool...
Put socks and tennis shoes on today for the first time in what i realized was months-been bf or in sandals all summer-only shoes i've had on are work boots-man it felt so strange, foreign to my feet. didnt like it, was very concious of having the sneakers on, whereas when i'm bf, i dont even think about my feet...similar to the times in karate when we've had to wear shoes for practicing outside or whatever reason, my feet felt like they weighed 50 lbs each...
been trying to get my garden area in shape-i think there must've been an old shed there at one point-almost seems like a foundation in the ground, theres so much wood and glass and concrete, besides every kind of weed invented-but i'm barefoot out there and no problems-and i'don't like to wear gloves either..
actually stepped on a small piece of glass in a store recently-pinched but didnt break skin-checked to make sure i wasnt bleeding-that would be embarrasing
-if my soles werent so tough cant imagine how glass or the garden would tear them up-as it is, i'm invincible-i'm making myself into a superhero, from the feet up!
its getting too miserable here to be barefoot too :x I guess Anthony is going to have more battles with mum now the weather will give her another argument in favour of shoes.
My soles are starting to lose thier toughness; goodness knows what my Kenyan friends would think now. It sounds like you have had a good summer if you dont need to worry about glass; i hope Anthony has done so well and is also coping safely with the hazards; tho I'm sure youthful vigour has given him soles to put mine and maybe even yours to shame
Comments
on a brighter note, we have a comic book shop just blocks from our house now and the boy makes a point of walking there barefoot regularly. big step up for him, and his soles are hard as leather now...many of the n'hood kids go barefoot as well. which they can as we keep this street clean and calm and quiet...keep the bad element out and take back your streets, if you will...
-and we talk about what people might think or say, about bare feet or whatever, and he knows to always consider the source, take things with a grain of salt, and ignore them or tell them to piss off when necessary...
so whats your next adventure, nick?
I glad your lad has friends that go barefoot, i had a couple, tho more would have been nice. My friend Leon at junior school was to blame for me getting into being baefoot since he never wore shoes at home, and gradually i did the same at his house, then progressed to walking there and back barefoot (about 2 miles) in the summer which gave me my first pleasant experience of having tough soles ! We used to go out barefoot and see which of us would wimp out first.
Sadly, not long before miserable, cold wet weather will stop me running barefoot ... ... already i think my soles have passed their peak of toughness. At least the summer holiday gives kids a decent chance to get used to it - and return to school with tough feet, which was cool when we had to do our first gym lesson at high school barefoot since 99% of the class found the floor: cold, gritty, etc etc - Leon & I were left wondering what the fuss was about. Most of our class thought we were mad, which we happily reinforced on cross country when we took our trainers off (once away from the school & staff) and did the course barefoot !
Hope the weather holds out your way !
Hope your boy has a +ve influence on the daughter, maybe she will respond to some back to front peer presure and try being barefoot; my experience of kids from teaching and scouting is that before they get too many teenage hang-ups they accept all sorts; some of the 10 - 12 year olds would be barefoot at camp or in the boats, our older coooler teens were not so laid back and a bit dismissive ! However when the older boys tried to do something barefoot at camp they discovered that a summer wearing trainers creates very soft feet whereas some of our juniors had leathery feet impervious to most things - it is probably bad enough being 15 and struggling to look cool walking on a gravel track, then having a 12 year old run past smiling ... ...
I notice that your lads mum does not seem to approve; does this make things hard for you / him ? Does she have any rational arguments against - hopefully his feet are tough enough not to get hurt and give her an excuse to shoe him ???!
Have fun
on another note, as some of you know i work at a juvenile correctional facility. the kids are really acting out lately: gang activity, violence, sexual activity, and most of it not being much of a concern to the youth-they ignore it, silently support it, or are just used to it-but the other day a kid dared to walk across the dorm barefoot and you'd have thought he was the worst criminal ever! many of his peers rose up and started shouting at him, and asking me if I wasnt going to consequence him for that-I just shook my head and laughed at their screwed up priorities...
as for the "kid that dared", was he just pushing things or just being a teenager ? and what did the others say when you refused to "punish" the offender ?
and the kid at work is just a screwball teen-he's a bit schizo so he really doesnt care what his peers think-i get along with him because he knows i'm crazy too-and nobody dares question me, kids or staff, or heaven help the fool...
been trying to get my garden area in shape-i think there must've been an old shed there at one point-almost seems like a foundation in the ground, theres so much wood and glass and concrete, besides every kind of weed invented-but i'm barefoot out there and no problems-and i'don't like to wear gloves either..
actually stepped on a small piece of glass in a store recently-pinched but didnt break skin-checked to make sure i wasnt bleeding-that would be embarrasing
-if my soles werent so tough cant imagine how glass or the garden would tear them up-as it is, i'm invincible-i'm making myself into a superhero, from the feet up!
My soles are starting to lose thier toughness; goodness knows what my Kenyan friends would think now. It sounds like you have had a good summer if you dont need to worry about glass; i hope Anthony has done so well and is also coping safely with the hazards; tho I'm sure youthful vigour has given him soles to put mine and maybe even yours to shame