Yep. And the sad thing, it got entrenched to the point that what was normal before the war is now a social taboo. The hippies didn’t exactly do us people of the future much good there.
Technically, stores are allowed to refuse service to barefooted customers. But there is a loophole: they’re not allowed to discriminate against disabled patrons, and that could be a valid reason not to wear shoes.
I know some barefooters tried the ADA angle and made a point of raising a stink at each and every venue they went to. But that’s really a disservice to the disabled community. I had a semi-medical reason not to wear shoes (alleviating knee pains is why I started doing it in the first place) but I never wanted to go down that route. It’s just really, really lame.
how do you walk down hot surfaces like parking lots or sunny beaches? I sometimes have to do this, advice appreciated.
Quickly , light footed and don’t stop lol
At least that’s what my experience was years ago in the southern United States growing up and going barefoot as often as I could
I suspect there’s a certain level of callous that helps as well, but you have to go barefoot often enough to build it so a bit of a catch 22
One step at a time 
The worst is hot black tarmac. You develop quite a lot of tolerance if you go barefoot all the time, but my limit is end-of-the-afternoon black tarmac on a cloudless sunny summer day in 100 degree weather. Anything beyond that and I carry a small bottle of water to wet my soles every now and then. That’s what I used to do in summer in Utah, down in the valley.
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