Hi Dave

I remember similar early summer days in Melbourne as kids. We didn't go to
school barefoot (a bit more cultured in Melbourne) but once we got home from
school we immediately took off our shoes and ran barefoot on the black
bitumen road (impregnated with gravel!) to harden our feet ready for the
summer holidays when we didn't wear shoes.

Like you, I too am now a tenderfoot and can't walk barefoot on pebbles any
more!

Cheers

John
--
John Varigos
Melbourne, Australia
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"Dave Gillingham" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:00:28 +0100, Reka wrote:

In article ,
says...
~I seem to have been asleep for much of this thread - probably because I'm
way
~past Kye's "nearly thirty". But everyone else is doing such a good job I
think
~I'll just sit back & enjoy it, despite what seems to be Reka's attempt to
drag
~me in.

Hmmph! I'm not dragging anyone. It's just that the usually the older
generation "brags" about the walking through the knee-deep snow (or
apparently in your corner of the world, the dry, hot barrens) all the way
to school...

My primary school was only half a mile up the road (black bitumen). So I
walked
to school, home for lunch, back to school, & home in the afternoon.
Townsville
was hot enough that we all went to school barefoot. Have you ever tried
walking
barefoot on bitumen at noon in a tropical summer? We all developed soles
like
old leather. Even when we went to high school (& wore shoes & socks and a
*tie*
- oh the culture shock!) the shoes came off as soon as we got home. At 17
I
spent a couple of weeks in hospital, and my feet peeled! About 1/8 inch
of
horny callous peeled off both soles. I've been a tenderfoot ever since.
Dave Gillingham
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