leave your shoes inside the car

Walking barefoot through shopping centers is a peculiarity among young Afrikaner males that I haven’t come to terms with yet. On my first tour through SA in 2000, I took note of this phenomenon on a few occasions. In fact, I can still vividly remember a barefoot young boy waiting in line at a Pick n Pay. At the time I was so intrigued with the concept that when I returned home I tried walking shoeless (and sockless) through the Shaw’s supermarket in South Burlington, VT. (I was politely asked to leave.) In the following years I guess I just assumed it was a passing phase in Afrikaans culture or that perhaps the boys I encountered lived on a farm – true boers – so they were accustomed to walking around without anything on their feet. However, this week, in the middle of Pretoria (i.e. the country’s executive capital), at the Brooklyn Mall (the US equivalent of the Scottsdale Fashion Square), there he was: a young Afrikaner male standing barefoot at the register.

I suppose the thing that’s most disturbing for me is that at some point the young kid had to cross the parking lot, make his way up the escalator, circle the aisles, and finally get up to the checkout counter…barefoot. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I guess.