Imprints: Student leads 'bare' life style

Eric Dinsfriend sparks interest with unusual choice of footwear - lack of footwear; criticized as druggie or hippie for lack of shoes

By: Rachel Crews

Posted: 5/24/07

A full-bearded young man with shoulder length curling brown hair in an olive green sweater decorated with floral embroidery stood with his hands resting in the back pockets of his fitted jeans.

Underneath him, his bare feet, identifying him as 'barefoot man' an OSU student who never wears shoes, no matter the weather.

What most people who spot him on campus don't know about him is his earnest attempts to practice a primitive lifestyle, not just appear counter cultural in his fashion.

Eric Dinsfriend, a sophomore in general agriculture, transferred from Biola University in Southern California to OSU this year. He has avoided wearing shoes since high school.

His choice to not wear shoes was never a religious conviction or social statement, he simply doesn't like wearing shoes.

"I just really enjoy going barefoot and I don't enjoy shoes so it's logical not to wear shoes," Dinsfriend said.

Also unique in Dinsfriend's appearance is the length of his hair and beard. Again, Dinsfriend did not attribute these choices in appearance to any moral conviction.

"I don't have a long beard and long hair and bare feet to look like Christ or anything. It's just personally how I like to look," Dinsfriend said. "But I am Jewish, so the long beard and the long locks let me feel more in touch with my Jewish self."

Part of Dinsfriend's relatives were living in Poland at the time of the Holocaust. Some of them got out safely, but others did not.

His great uncle was a wealthy doctor and did not expect that his family would be taken to a concentration camp, and did not leave Poland in time.

In desperation he sowed diamonds underneath the skin of his children and wife, Dinsfriend's great aunt, to bribe the guards. Despite these efforts none of them were able to escape the death camps.

Dinsfriend does not practice Judaism but is proud of his heritage.

At Biola Dinsfriend was studying music, majoring in the saxophone. He also plays the flute, bassoon and clarinet. His favorite instrument is the lute.

His other love is agriculture, which influenced his choice to come OSU. It made more sense to him to be a musician studying agriculture than a farmer studying music.

James Cassidy, an OSU professor in crop and soil sciences, taught Dinsfriend last term and is now working with him in an organic growing seminar.

"I was very curious about him because he walked into my office and was a barefoot dude," Cassidy said. "I got to know him pretty good. It's not a fashion statement for him. It's not just something he's trying on. He is who he is."

Dinfriend's parents own about five acres of land in Sweet Home that they allow him to live on now and where he hopes to practice his farming.

Right now he is growing: garlic, onions, dill, okra and peas. He hopes to also farm sunflower, corn and fruit trees and eventually buy a goat and one duck.

"I like primitive living skills like making fire by rubbing wood, being able to live in the wilderness," Dinsfriend said. "I like sleeping outside and not using a stove. I'm sort of a raw-foodist. I don't really cook food. It's been called the primal diet or the raw animal foods diet."

For meals, Dinsfriend prefers everything he eats to be uncooked, to preserve its nutritional value. This means he will eat raw meat, eggs, cheese, butter and milk. The dairy products, he clarified, are un-pasteurized.

"It's something people have done for thousands of years. It's just recently that people are afraid of bacteria and getting sick and thinking fat is unhealthy and stuff like that, and afraid of cholesterol," Dinsfriend said. "I think it's all false, unless it's cooked, then food becomes unhealthy."

Dinsfriend practices farming without the use of chemicals and intends to continue his environmentally friendly practices.

Along with farming he also does handicrafts in his free time. He embroidered the flowers on his olive green sweater, but more often he crotchets or carves wood. He carved a garden gnome, which now sits in the garden where his organic farming class practices what they learn in class.

"When I first met Eric, I sat down on a bench and started talking to him," said Kathryn Anderson, a freshman in liberal studies. "It struck me, 'this guy is really genuine'. He has really thought through opinions about things."

His love for nature, natural farming, primitive eating and living, handicrafts and music make him a very unique and fascinating person to talk to. Many people see his bare feet, label him and never know the depth and variety of Dinsfriend's interests. Still he doesn't seem to mind and continues enjoying life in his bare feet.

"People always call me a druggy or a hippie." Dinsfriend said. "Sometimes people think it's cool and exciting to see some hippie walking street, and sometime they're using it as a derogatory term, but it doesn't really matter to me."