The other night Jackson, Audrey and I had the opportunity to meet Steve, a great grandfather and widower who is a native of the Lehigh Valley. After much conversation about my kids, his great grand kids, and his new house, he learned that we are from Minnesota. He asked if it was common or just the quirk of a MN friend of his to remove his shoes upon entering a house. Oh, I told him it was strict protocol to remove shoes when entering a home, and how hard it is for me to adjust to the shoe clad NorthEasterners who tromp my clean wood floors with who knows what on the bottoms of their shoes. He found this emmensly entertaining. The past few years he had decided that it is smart to have guests remove shoes before entering his home. He likes to keep things orderly, since his wife passed away. I told him I would try my best to get the shoe-removing manners to stick here in PA. He replied, "if you start that club, I'd be the first to sign up!"
Steve was so pleasant to talk with, I find myself hoping I will run into him the next time we stop in the Emmaus McDonalds for supper. The next old man we would meet would be ART. His club of choice is "No tresspassing or I'll call the cops on ya". That is another post, for another day.
4 comments:
Hmm..nice teaser about Art. Great tactic to keep your readers coming back!
I never would have thought Pennsylvanians to be so uncivilized. Converting them to shoe removers is a noble mission and perhaps the reason you have been placed in their midst. You must enlighten them...one Steve at a time.
My mom really doesn' like it when we go in and don't take off our shoes. she charges us two quarters and makes us vacuum the whole house!
but I don't wanna do it anyway, cuz I have to vacuum once a week, and it almost hurts when my brothers or sisters spill dirt on the floor.
Maria
man you meet a lot of different people don't you?
Removing shoes in homes is an excellent thing to do.
I have an whole blog about this. Shoes Off at the Door, Please You might want to take a look.
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