While growing up in a small town during the 1940’s, going barefoot was frowned upon in our middle class neighborhood.  If you didn’t wear shoes in the summer, it meant your parents couldn’t afford them.  In our house, bare feet were verboten because they posed a health hazard.  You could step on a rusty  nail, and get lockjaw.  Or, you might come  home with a big cut that bled all over the living room rug.   All of which required expensive doctor visits or even a trip to the hospital emergency room, resulting in a serious financial crisis.  I’m still stricken with the phobia associated with  unshod feet treading on a minefield of nails, bacteria, glass, feces,  and God knows what all.  And that’s why Meghan shouldn’t go barefoot.

My country cousins went blissfully barefoot all summer, and I don’t remember any serious traumas resulting.  Also, my husband was raised on a farm in Nebraska and didn’t wear  shoes until school started.  Anyone living near a beach  thought nothing of going barefoot, either.  And now, many people have  backyard pools , where going barefoot  comes naturally.  I suppose that Meghan Markle, being a California girl, saw nothing wrong with going barefoot at Prince Harry’s house.   She didn’t understand the way it must have looked to her aristocratic future in-laws the first time they met in England. .

In a published  family picture, Meghan, Harry, and their kids are all barefoot.  I hope it was just a pose, and they put their shoes back on as soon as the photo shoot was over.  Especially if they were in the chicken coop.  Did you know that bird  droppings can invade a tiny cut on your foot and cause histoplasmosis?  There are at least 60 diseases that could result from going barefoot, including MRSA.  Fungal infections are commonly caused by not wearing shoes.

According to podiatrists,  going barefoot can be a good thing. , Walking barefoot on carpets, grass or sand  improves circulation.  It also may help  strengthen flexibility of the muscles and ligaments of the foot, and improve your posture and body balance.  They say It’s okay on a dry , sunny day to take off your shoes and dance on the lawn or beach.  Just remember to clean your feet afterwards and, yes, put your shoes back on.

If you have read my previous blogs, you know I’m generally in Meghan Markle’s corner.  She has accomplished so much in her lifetime as a bi racial woman without inherited  wealth  to back her up.  But encouraging entire  families to go shoeless could be hazardous to their health.  And that’s why Meghan shouldn’t go barefoot.