Two shoes on, two shoes off...
Berkeley, CA is unlike any other place in the world, I'm convinced. In my opinion, the 1960s never left Berkeley. Sure, life went on, but the ideals and pastimes of the 1960s never left. Free love, pot, peace, love and understanding... yah, that's Berkeley. Imagine that Berkeley was home to the now famous "free speech movement" from 1964-1965. The action took place not but a few minutes walk from where my office is.
This maintenance of 1960s life is apparent walking down Telegraph avenue where you can buy hemp-everything and a marijuana dealer is likely never more than an arm's length away. OK, maybe two. It isn't unusual to see 50-70 year old "hippies" in Berkeley, and they're passing it on to their children. The other day, for example, as I was walking down the sidewalk on my way to lunch, I saw a man and his 4-or-so-year-old daughter walking up the street towards me. As I was passing them, I noticed that the dad wasn't wearing any shoes or socks. He was barefoot, walking along the sidewalk. I won't lie - the sidewalks in a hippie- and homeless-ridden city aren't the most pleasant. Only under exceptional circumstances could I be convinved to walk any significant distance without shoes or socks. Seeing this man's lack of footwear was surprising. I wouldn't particularly expect that even in Berkeley, and certainly not from a man with a child in tow. But then again, Berkeley is the place of the unexepcted.
I admit that I was a little afraid to look at the girl's feet, fearing that they, too, would be bare. And in the event that they were, I wasn't really sure how I would feel about that. To decide for yourself as an adult that you're going to walk down dirty and potentially toxic sidewalks without shoes is one thing, but to subject a child who knows no better to that is something entirely different. I was relieved, therefore, when I saw that the girl was wearing shoes. But there was something abnormal - she was wearing two different shoes. These shoes weren't even similar, though, so the odds of an accidental "mistaking" of the shoes was out. One of the shoes was white, the other black, and they were completely different styles. At least she was wearing shoes, I suppose.
Life in Berkeley...
This maintenance of 1960s life is apparent walking down Telegraph avenue where you can buy hemp-everything and a marijuana dealer is likely never more than an arm's length away. OK, maybe two. It isn't unusual to see 50-70 year old "hippies" in Berkeley, and they're passing it on to their children. The other day, for example, as I was walking down the sidewalk on my way to lunch, I saw a man and his 4-or-so-year-old daughter walking up the street towards me. As I was passing them, I noticed that the dad wasn't wearing any shoes or socks. He was barefoot, walking along the sidewalk. I won't lie - the sidewalks in a hippie- and homeless-ridden city aren't the most pleasant. Only under exceptional circumstances could I be convinved to walk any significant distance without shoes or socks. Seeing this man's lack of footwear was surprising. I wouldn't particularly expect that even in Berkeley, and certainly not from a man with a child in tow. But then again, Berkeley is the place of the unexepcted.
I admit that I was a little afraid to look at the girl's feet, fearing that they, too, would be bare. And in the event that they were, I wasn't really sure how I would feel about that. To decide for yourself as an adult that you're going to walk down dirty and potentially toxic sidewalks without shoes is one thing, but to subject a child who knows no better to that is something entirely different. I was relieved, therefore, when I saw that the girl was wearing shoes. But there was something abnormal - she was wearing two different shoes. These shoes weren't even similar, though, so the odds of an accidental "mistaking" of the shoes was out. One of the shoes was white, the other black, and they were completely different styles. At least she was wearing shoes, I suppose.
Life in Berkeley...
posted by Lance Johnson at 7:12 PM
5 comments
