Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, you welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
there's Chuck and there's Jerry, and this is short stuff
in the house. Let's talk. You know, a song I've
been singing all day, I do know, and I really
hope you won't sing it because I've been trying to
get it out of my head. Really, do you think
it's the same one. It's got to be, because it's
basically about this, Well, it's got to be. Did it
(00:24):
did eighty? Was it? From the I think sixties and
then an eighties metal band covered. Let's just not talk
about it any further, all right, we won't, because that
is what this is about exactly, That's right, uh, And
we're talking about and this is uh. This is a
shorter article from Earl Buddy Dave Bruce from the housetof
Works dot com website, and it's about uh. I don't
(00:50):
even want to say the word now, but it's about
when you enter an establishment and there may be words
printed on poster board that say no shirt, no shoes,
no service, yeah yeah, written by Vinny apparently, yeah, get
out of my barreau. On the other hand, it might
(01:11):
say shirt and shoes are required, but the upshot is
this And do you know what inspired me to to
pick this one? I have no idea. This is the
exception that proves the rule. Ah. So the the exception
is that there are places where you can't enter without
shoes or a shirt. They won't give your service, meaning
that it implies other places you could be without a
(01:34):
shirt or shoes. Okay, at any rate, I's so fact though,
there is a strange backstory to the no shirt, no shoes,
no service um placard. Uh. And that is that apparently
it was created. Not okay, so it wasn't created, but
it exploded in popularity in response to dirty hippies in
(01:56):
the late sixties and early seventies. Yeah, and I love
of the research behind this, because there's two things at work. Uh.
In this how Stuff Works article, Dave got in touch
with the uh, well, he didn't get in touch with
the first one. But there's something called the Society of
Barefoot Living. No surprise, Society for Barefoot Living. Oh would
I say of? Yeah, they're not even just of they're
(02:17):
actually actively trying to to promote it. There's like, we're
of it, but you should be for it. So we
went to their blog and he found that these placards,
uh they say, didn't exist until nine and that's when
they really sort of took off because of hippies. So Dave,
researcher that he is, reached out to an author named
(02:38):
William H. Roarer Ball, author of something called a book
I guess called American Hippies. He's from the University of Washington,
and said, hey, is it true that these placards started
sprouting up because of hippies? And it sounds like his
answer was basically yeah, sure. He's like, yes, it's true,
leave me alone. You isn't very emphatic about it. He
(03:01):
was just like kind of like, yeah, that sounds about right.
Yeah he was, And he basically made the point. He
was like, this is not like they didn't create these
to put out hippies. It just so happens that roar
baugh Um came from grew up in a coastal Florida
town and he was like, we had these signs long
before hippies, but they were pretty much relegated to coastal
(03:23):
Florida towns with beaches because it was a lot more
formal back then. That's not usually the case now. If
you could walk into a beach bar in Florida. They
don't care what you're wearing or not wearing. But in
the fifties, you said, people were more formal, So these
things did exist, but it wasn't until the hippies came along.
They really started popping up all over the country in
businesses that wanted to keep hippies out. And this was
(03:45):
a really easy way to do it. I thought we
had sort of a nod a wink agreement to not
say the S word. And you already said it. Oh
did I? Yeah? What did I say? Well, you said that,
I know, But where did I say? Can we can
we crop it out the middle of that sentence? Which opence?
I'll redo the sentence. I really didn't want to sing.
It's okay, it's okay. We we just won't sing it.
(04:09):
Keep I screwed things up this badly, Chuck, I'm sorry,
that's okay. But the same author, I think, points out
that even though he was seeing these placards up in
Florida in the nineties when things are more formal, that
you go to Florida today, something that you may see
occasionally even which is the attitude is and sometimes they'll
(04:30):
even have this posted no shirt, no shoes, no problem.
Welcome to my pizaria. If any moved to Florida, Yeah,
with your toes, bring them in. Yeah. So um right,
Because he was saying that the culture was more formal
back than in the fifties, which is why they would
have a mini billboard in their window that said, um, no,
(04:54):
no shoes, no shoes, no service. Yeah. But now it's
it's uh, it's Margaritaville. It's Jimmy Buffetts style. You can
go in there with your flip flops on, no problem. Right.
So if you looked at some of these um squares
of cardboard that were in a window, it just doesn't
matter anymore now. If you looked at some of these signs,
(05:16):
especially back in the fifties or in the sixties or seventies,
they would say something probably like by order of the
health Department. It turns out that this was a bald
faced lie, as dirty a lie as the hippies feet
were dirty. And I think we'll talk about that right
after a bright con chuck. It sounds like a great
cliffy and shock like I'm never going to live this
(06:11):
down in my own mind. I'm so disappointed in myself
that's okay, you didn't say, and just you saying it's okay,
it doesn't make it okay. It's not okay. You didn't
say long haired freaky people need not apply. Yeah, we
just might as well as just let it all hang
out now. I actually like that song, do you well? Sure?
(06:33):
I do. I think it's kind of fun and like
the original or the Tesla version more well. I was
into Tesla for a little while because as a just
learning guitar player in high school, Tesla had some really
great guitar songs, good licks. I wouldn't I never saw
a Tesla in concert anything. I wasn't that deep, but
(06:54):
I liked the music videos that they aired. But the
Five Man Electrical Band, the original version, has this really
great intro before it slows down into the song that
I really really like. They're still around and they're Canadian. Okay,
I'll bet they like Gordon Lightfoot. I hope this makes
up for my Gordon Lightfoot comments. I don't know if
(07:15):
it's going to, but it's a good start. I'll bet
Canada says I love Rush too. Sure, who doesn't love Rush?
I mean, you'd have to be crazy not to like Rush.
Absolutely so I said something about the health department, um,
and saying that, no, you can't come in with shirt
or without a shirt or shoes. It's just dirty. And
we're the health department, so we don't we don't truck
(07:37):
to that kind of thing. And um, apparently it's not
the case because the Society for Barefoot Living. Of course
they did. They went to the trouble of writing to
every health department in the country, every state health department,
so fifty different health departments they wrote a letter to,
probably a form letter. I'm sure they didn't personalize each
one from scratch, but they got sponsors from them. They
(08:00):
posted them on their site that says to a health department, No,
there's no law whatsoever saying that a customer can or
can't enter a an establishment with or without shoes or
a shirt. That's just not a law anywhere in the
United States. Yeah, they're like, if you work there, you
gotta wear shoes and assured. I think it's just called
(08:22):
proper it's higher. Yeah. No, one wants a chest hair
in their pizza, no as much less Vinny's. That's not
what you want, especially Vinny in Florida, because then it
smells like cocoa butter and it's muggy. But the Health
Department doesn't care what the people that dine there are doing. Um,
they're concerned about the people running the business. Who does
(08:43):
care about ensuring rights is the US federal government. And
depending on who you are in this country and when
this was, but the nineteen four Federal Civil Rights Act
basically said, hey, if you've got a business, you got
a hotel, you gotta store a restaurant. You can't say
someone's got to leave because of their religion, or their
(09:04):
race or color, or their national origin. What about their shoes? Uh?
And then the Americans with Disabilities Act then extended that,
of course to people with disabilities, and certain states have
gotten on board with extending those rights to all Americans,
but the federal government has still not gotten on board
(09:26):
with extending those rights to all Americans. Again, though, what
about the shoes? And the upshot of it is this,
you can, as a business owner require certain forms of
attire and be well within your legal rights to tell
people they can't come in, as long as you're not
just applying it to one protected group and not all people. Right,
(09:49):
that's the key. So if you're just like Um, you know, uh,
Irish you have to wear shoes. Everybody else is fine.
You're gonna get in trouble if you do that. Um.
At the very at least the Irish are going to
be mad at you because they'll be like, what what
do we do? Um? But that's pretty much the key
to the whole thing. Yeah, exactly. Oh that's it, that's
(10:13):
the end. Huh. I have got nothing else I got.
I'm wearing slippers right now. Yeah, me too. Are you
wearing socks with your slippers? Know what kind of slippers
you were in these days though? Sas sasha Washi slippers. Okay,
they're Japanese, but they're really nice and comfortable cloth slippers.
(10:35):
I have gotten into these Olokai products in general. Uh,
this is gonna make me seem aged now. But I
have my Olakai springing summer slippers that aren't super hot.
But then I was also you know, we went to
uh I took our first trip to the Bahamas over
(10:56):
the holidays, and I found myself in a predicament when
it comes to and this kind of dovetails with this
episode as far as like beach ware and like how
you got a dress at a restaurant when you're at
a beach place or a beach resort, yeah, usually, but
there's like it's still pretty casual. Like what I found
(11:19):
is there's like, and this sounds so terrible, but there's
like resort where that you can wear to a nice
place at a resort, but it's not like a nice
place in New York City. Yeah, like you don't want
to wear Tommy Bahama too. You know, I can't even
think of a nice place in New York, but you
could as resort where. Yeah, But what it basically was
(11:39):
ahead of predicament and that I never feel like I
have the right shoes down there. I have my flip
flops for the pool, and then I have my like
you know, my my new balance, my walking shoes or whatever,
and neither one of those feel right at a restaurant
like that. So I got some olakai like uh sort
of resort where she okay? Nice? Are they like woven
(12:02):
and kind of like doc ciders or are they like topsiders?
These are sort of um, sort of topsider esque, uh,
not woven. But then I also got a pair of
those like woven sandals that are kind of nice that
you could wear into a restaurant. I am not going
to resort any time in the planned future. But I
(12:23):
was at Nordstrum and saw that they had Sperry topsiders
on sale, and I was like, I'm getting those because
they're a bargain and I'm going to put them to
use someday. So I'm ready to go with the resort
wear shoes. I love it. We should meet up in
the Bahamas. It's very nice lets and I'll be like,
nice shoes, and you'll say, nice shoes. Let's go get
some tomorrow. Oh no, not down there, No no, no,
(12:47):
you could drink drink some rum or something. Okay, we'll
do that instead. Okay, Uh, that's it, right, Chuck. Yeah,
we we successfully patted this one out to twelve minutes. Well,
since Chuck said, we padded that me short Stuff is out.
Stuff You Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio.
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(13:08):
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