In Walk Two Moons, why doesn't Sal's dad wear work gloves?

Sal tells us this story in Chapter 18, titled “The Good Man.” Here she talks a lot about her father. When she and her parents lived on the farm in Bybanks, Kentucky, her father enjoyed doing the work around the place. He was at home there. He felt more connected to the earth whenever he touched it with his own hands, without interference from any kind of material that was supposed to “protect” him from it. As a result, he chose not to wear gloves. Sal also tells us her father missed this kind of work when they moved to Ohio, after her mother left for Idaho. He got an office job in Euclid. Sal wasn’t the only one who had to adjust to a new place and a new way of living after the move north.