Mary Craddock wrote:

>I thought that feet may be shedding skin, callouses built up from the
>wearing/rubbing of shoes and socks during cold months.
>Maybe in the summer when wearing sandals and going barefoot more often, the
>hardened skin tends to dry out and peel away when exposed to air /sunlight.

Actually, just the opposite is true.  As a kid, my next-door neighbor Maria
and I would do girl talk while slowly and painfully walking, barefoot, on
her family business' gravel lane in early spring.  Why?  To toughen our feet
for the summer.  Now that we're growups, we spend time and money to get our
feet baby soft.

Shoes and socks keep your feet moist.  One reason women have trouble with
dry feet is hose, which leave us with virtually no barrier from the
elements.  Men get to wear shoes and socks and, by and large, have soft
feet.  Don't believe me?  On the first day of sandal weather, look at
people's feet.  Isn't is frustrating that the men, who usually don't give a
rip, have baby-soft heels and the women have veritable hooves?  Now you know
why.

I'm sure if a man ever did this it would be in private (waaaaaay to girly)
but go the Dr. Scholl's section of the WalMart/KMart/whatever near you and
get the foot file.  I can't remember what it's called now, but it's not hard
to spot; it's white plastic, shaped much like a shoe horn, with black
sandpaper, basically, for filing your heels.  It works better than anything
I've ever used.

Dori Zook
Denver, CO

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