The Australian, who has just been transferred to the London office of the multinational company for which he worked in Perth, saunters up to the reception desk on his first day of work in the UK.
“So, do I need to wear shoes here?” He asks…
The above is a true story of a friend of a friend of mine. He really did that … and he was only half joking. Australians, you see, have a long standing tradition of not wearing shoes. Perhaps it’s the weather, perhaps it’s the laid back nature of Australian culture, perhaps it’s just that Australia doesn’t tend quite so far towards the stuck up, snotty, classist bullshit that America falls prey to all too often. Whatever it is, shoes are optional in so many situations here, the mind boggles. And, honestly, I love it.
I’m the woman who graduated from high school barefoot despite strict edicts from the Powers That Be that we should all wear formal attire under our robes, blah, blah, blah. I would have graduated from university barefoot, as well, if it were held outside during shoe free sort of weather. I did, however, get married barefoot much to my grandmother-in-law’s horror (she was fixated on how barefoot would “ruin the dress” for some reason). So, yeah, I’m not one to complain about barefooted-ness. In fact, I was over the moon when I first moved here and realized that no one would bat an eyelash if I wandered across the street to the shops wearing nothing on my feet. After years of complaining about having to remember to put shoes on just to drop into the shops (lest I get kicked out), it was refreshing to not have to bother. I’m sure, technically, the same rules apply to places like grocery stores, etc here but no one seems to care or enforce them. I’ve even heard a story in which a man attempted to get into an event barefoot. When he was told he needed to have something on his feet to be allowed in, he licked the back of his ticket stub, stuck it to the sole of his foot and continued walking in without so much as skipping a beat. An isolated incident, yes, perpetrated by a complete smart arse, yes, but so very Australian nonetheless. š
To me the no shoes thing just highlights further the Australian tendency towards being relaxed, comfortable, easy going. It seems Australian culture is not wound as tightly as in the US. People are much better at just letting things go, not being quite so judgemental and knowing how to kick back, crack open a beer and enjoy the sunshine. Of course, this sometimes is infuriating as it seems, also, to go hand in hand with a reluctance to fight even when it really matters. But that is a mini rant for another time and, besides, it does not apply to all things all the time and is a gross generalisation anyway. Of course, this entire post is a gross generalisation but let’s not split hairs.
You should have been around in the US during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lots of young people going barefoot everywhere, in stores and shops too, even in New York City. Went out of style during the 1980s, and never came back. Still like that in Australia huh?
You said:
“Iām sure, technically, the same rules apply to places like grocery stores, etc here but no one seems to care or enforce them.”
Those “rules” in the US are not laws, only store preferences, and those signs did not exist anywhere before around 1968 and 1969, when they began appearing all over the country, saying “no bare feet”, then later worded “no shirt, no shoes, no service”, or “shirts and shoes required”. Their main purpose was to keep hippies out since their anti-war activities were considered unpatriotic and unamerican by older conservatives. Hey, even men with long hair were often not allowed in certain stores. But by the early 1970s, all that went mainstream, including going barefoot, and much of the enforcement went away, as many stores just gave up enforcing their own policy. Now that you could not tell a radical, leftist hippie from a so-called “regular” young person, it just confused those old people. So we kind of had that freedom, for a while, at least if you were young then and especially a woman. There were lots of barefoot women and teenagers wandering about during the summer, and no one seemed to be bothered by that. Social and cultural desensitization to new and different ideas happens quickly, and we also forget quickly when a fad or trend goes away.
I think you are also exaggerating the likelyhood of getting kicked out of stores in the US even today. Though there are regional differences, you will find that most places don’t care and do not pay that much attention. I guess it’s gotten so rare in the US that one person doing it will not cause much of a reaction. But today, when they do kick you out, they give different reasons for anti-barefoot policies – they are worried about liability.
I am aware of the anti-hippie nonsense that went on in the ’60’s and ’70’s. I also know that the no shirt, no shoes, no service rules are *rules* & not necessarily laws and am aware of the liability excuse. I tend to think, though, that someone walking into a grocery store barefoot in most areas of the US would be treated with disdain and more than likely asked to leave … a lot more likely than if they did so in Oz. In my experience, people in the US tend to be way more high strung about such things than over here. And I guess part of my point is that so few people even think to go barefoot in the US … because they’ve had it drummed into them that it’s a bad/disgusting/etc thing. In Oz, it’s not so black and white or so judgmental.
Now that aspect I could go for!
You learn early to avoid glass and bees when you start going barefoot early, which I did. So I get ticked off when people try to give me the ol’ “but you’ll hurt yourself!” C’mon. I’ve been doing it for my entire life, and I can only remember one small piece of glass and one bee (running heedlessly in grass).
The only thing my husband has ever tried to “command” me to do was to wear shoes (outdoors around the house). He gave up after a couple of years and admitted he was being foolish out of pride’s sake.
Of course, now our kid tries to go barefoot all the time, which is attributed to my influence. Probably correctly.
Mu uncle goes barefoot in the snow, but then he eats ants off the ground, too, so…I’m not quite that extreme.
The only problem with walking barefoot in Perth are the flaming hot brick covered walk ways. Do you know that outdoor mall downtown? I remember a particularly hot day walking around there barefoot with crystal clarity because I swear the bricks were going to burn holes through my feet!
If the sidewalks are hot, you can walk in the grass, but the grass has these evil little seed pods that poke into your skin and cling to you. I forget what they are all called… do you know?…. I guess then, there is more than one problem…
But I have oh so fond memories of walking at dawn from place to place, smelling jasmine and walking carefully home with bare feet. I think the ability to walk barefoot adds to my memory of Perth as a idyllic place…
You don’t see as many barefooted people in the Hay & Murray Street Malls these days, Kim. Probably for the reason you mentioned. š I wouldn’t call Perth an idyllic place … but then I’ve been stuck here for 9 years now so the novelty has well and truly worn thin.
Coming from the rainy and cold Pacific NW, the very heat of Perth made it idyllic. I think that when I was there it was the first time in my life where I was warmed all the way through. No layers, no coat, no shoes. Totally liberating.
But I hear you – in 9 years, or even 2 or 3, the good and bad points of a place start to even out. Portland seemed like a ideal town when I imagined moving here. Now I know its pros and cons intimately. Like a lover, the infatuation of a city wears off over time, and hopefully gets replaced by real love based on understanding and tolerance.
Hhhmmm, yeah … or you just get mighty pissed off that you’re stuck in a hole with no mountains or trees and hotter than hell summers. Er … something like that, yeah.
I’ve alway been a wuss so haven’t gone barefoot much. I hate the idea of walking on something yucky.
Inadvertently we seem to be encouraging that trait in our son. We seem to only put shoes on him because of how crazy hot the ground can get.
Also there are a few places one just shouldn’t go barefoot, eg public toilets. Gross.
I don’t, either, unless I’m home. And, honestly, it seems to be less common altogether lately. BUT it is still one of the things that I noticed when I got here and still sticks in my head as *different* from my place of origin if that makes sense.