>> I used to run around barefoot and was forever stepping on things or falling and getting cut and so forth.
>
>What made you give it up. I'm still doing it <g>

Back home it was really feasible in the seventies. I'd go out on a summer evening, walk my girlfriend to the other end of town and get back home - about 10km altogether, all barefoot. True, I my soles were sort of thick already, and I've actually practiced a technique of walking limply over small sharp objects (can't pinch a flat tire - it won't really burst unless its tension is high), even glass. However, anything larger than a couple of millimeters would still be dangerous, and beginning with eighties or so, there were broken bottles in too many places.

Here, it's just impractical, the pavements are made of roughly ground stone, caliber around 8mm, with mostly insufficient tar to keep it in place, at least on sidewalks and our rear parking. Walking on grass, road or good concrete sidewalk is OK; this shoddy asphalt for a sidewalk just makes it near impossible. And um, yep, broken glass in too many places to just walk without watching.