Cultural differences: No Shoes Allowed!

People that live in colder climates are almost always certain to do one thing...remove their shoes when they walk into your house. This has become a non-negotiable thing, we've noticed, here in the Northeast. People do it...all the time. Even when the weather is nice, dry and sunny outside, which is rare. When they walk into your house, they remove their shoes...no questions asked, no prompting required. This very obvious cultural norm has created some awkward feelings a few times for us, the seemingly hospitable Texans from the south...because this has not sunken in as a habit for us yet. I feel so rude when someone has to ask me to take off my shoes. I feel like a child being reprimanded for touching white walls with paint-covered hands. "I'm so sorry" I say...but I don't really know why I feel so bad.

I think it's because most people have shoe racks in their entry-ways...a poor-mans mud room, if you will. I don't necessarily notice the "mud room" when entering a house or apartment, but after the reprimand, I realize the mountain of shoes located within 2 steps of the front door. Obviously my host doesn't want shoes worn in their home, because every shoe that they own is in the entryway, not in their closet. I feel like an idiot, they say it's no big deal, and I'm left in someone's home barefooted or wearing Christmas socks in September feeling anything but a representative of Southern Hospitality.

All that to say...I'm learning a new set of manners that requires you to take off your shoes when entering a private home. Which means I need to purchase a few more pairs of Christmas socks.