I never wore shoes except for school and church growing up.
Even in the snow I was comfortable barefoot.
Each year they would spray tar on the dirt road in front of our house to keep the dust down. I would walk in the fresh tar barefoot as it put a thick layer on my feet that protected from thorns.
It was a wise decision as many children I grew up with ended up in trouble of some sort or another. Also, we learned Southern values.
Anyway, the summer of 1975 when I was still 12, I used to walk to town with my cousins on the dirt road that was also tarred over as you describe. Now when I say town, I mean a general store, a couple gas stations and a tiny supermarket. We were really out in the sticks. It was about a four mile walk each way and my cousins did it in their bare feet.
I envied them for that as the blacktop was just too hot for me not to wear shoes. But they encouraged me to leave my shoes at home and break in my "tenderfeet."
At first, I mostly walked in the grass on the side of the road but eventually my feet hardened to where I could walk on the blacktop and dirt roads just like they could. Which was an amazing skill to take back to East Boston where everybody wore shoes all the time, even in the house.
From that point on, I never wore shoes in the house again. But even that is considered "eccentric" up here in the Northeast where almost everybody wears shoes from the time they get up to the time they go to bed.