Friday, October 2, 2009

Leaving Your Shoes at the Door: What a Huge Controversy!


When I first told my family I was moving to Canada, besides the big shock, they were all excited of having someone to visit abroad. However, for my very dear uncle Jorge the excitement was gone when he announced he wanted to come and visit me and I told him he was going to have to take his shoes off when coming into my house (and anyone else's house for all I know), it seemed to me like he was making a big deal out of it, but I really wanted him to come, so I did some research in the internet to track the origins of this custom and to be able to provide him with more information.

I did a Google search and was surprised to get so many results from discussion boards, blogs, articles, etc refering to this (to me very simple) issue. I found a blog which entire content is devoted to that and even a book called "Sole Truth About Those Soles" by Shirley Sanders. I never thought this was such a big thing for some people.

Of course, since I adopted this custom I have had to be more careful with the socks I wear, it is very embarassing to take off your shoes and show one of your toes through a nice little hole in your sock... it also makes me think sometimes if it is worth spending a lot of money in a nice pair of shoes if everytime I go to a friend's house I am going to have to take them off; and sometimes it also puts me into a dilema regarding the length of my trousers, if I leave them long in order to be able to wear them with high heels, as soon as I take them off I trip on my pants; on the other hand if I leave them at a flat shoe length I am not able to wear my heels.

Besides those few complaints, I have found that walking in my socks or slippers at home is super comfortable, it makes me feel more relaxed and it gives the concept of home an even cozier feeling. And this of course on top of the huge difference it makes when I clean the house! Last June I went to Mexico to visit my mom and even though they vaccum and clean very often my baby's belly, feet and hands turned black after a few minutes of crawling... yuk!

I have come to embrace that custom so much that now everywhere I go I feel the urgency of taking my shoes off even if I am in Mexico with my dear uncle Jorge. Pretty much like what happened to Emily Prucha.

1 comment:

  1. I had fun reading this entry, specially the big decision about the length of the trousers. For me it has been difficult to get use to it and then I pack my “crocs” and look like an old lady every on crocs every party I go…

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