Americans wear their shoes...indoors.
and conversely - Canadians take their shoes off when they come inside.
WEIRD!!
I mean, i guess i knew about this - but you forget when you're not thinking about it.
But now that i'm Going to Boston in May - I realize that this will be the FIRST time that i spend any time in the U.S.A. where i'm not visiting Canadian relatives who KNOW about the removal of shoes thing, they understand it, who knows - maybe they long to take their shoes off at the door too...
I don't want to look a fool. eep!
The more i think about this subtle/yet glaring difference between our two cultures, the more i start to wonder:
Do Americans wear Fancy Socks?
Do Fancy Socks sell well in the States?
Or do they have a bigger market in Canada?
Why would Americans buy fancy socks anyway, who would ever see them?
In Canada, when you host a gathering or a dinner party, or what have you - the front door becomes this gauntlet that one must negotiate when entering the home... you have to sort of dance and shimmy and LEAP over the mountain of shoes to find a piece of bare floor to remove their OWN shoes. Good times. In fact, Canadians will take off their shoes unless EXPLICITLY TOLD to leave our shoes on and even then, we'll be self-conscious about the mess we're making in your home...
Then, it becomes an inadvertent Sock Fashion show. And i have been to dinner parties where i may or may not have been judged by my socks... the hostess swears i wasn't being judged, but i felt it... my socks - were WHITE!!! The only people in the whole party wearing white socks were B-rad and i. Everyone else was wearing Fancy socks. (By fancy socks, i should clarify that it means - not white, or patterned, or ...fancy.... not purchased in a bag from the underpants aisle in WalMart)
Y'know, come to think of it - this is soooo ingrained into me that i even do it in Hotels! Walk in the door, take off shoes. It's habit!
I don't know WHY it is that Canadians do this, maybe we do it because of all the snow, but i do recall thinking one time while watching Television that Americans must be washing/mopping/sweeping/polishing/vacuuming their floors ALL THE FRAKKIN TIME! Maybe this explains the amount of Swiffer commercials where the children go trampling through the house leaving a disaster behind them, and the mom just shrugs her shoulders and gets out the trusty SWIFFER SWEEPER!
Let me tell you, if this same scene had played out in my house growing up, there would have been screaming and mom would have threatened to get out the wooden spoon!! (to be used on our backsides!! ouch)
Like the majority of Canadians, we watch American Television - and like a lot of Canadians, growing up i assumed that people left their shoes on because it was TV. Nope. They leave their shoes on because they're American...
I guess this also explains Galoshes...
i always thought that Galoshes were the stupidest invention on the planet, cuz why cover up your shoes - you're just going to take them off when you walk in the door. No so, if you're American. This makes sense now, you don't want your shoes to get all mucky and dirty because you'll be wearing them for the rest of the day. Hm. Interesting.
Also, this explains that scene in the Sex and the City movie where Carrie's salivating over her big SHOE closet. And everytime i see shows where they take you through celebrity houses - there's always that HUGE shoe Closet just off the master suite. Makes sense, i suppose. Because you take your shoes off at night, and put them on in the morning before leaving the room.
In Canada, it would be weird to see a big master bedroom Shoe Closet. They'd be close to the door somewhere.
In my case, all our shoes are crammed into the shoe rack by the front door and the over flow are shoved into the hall closet... don't open it, it's booby trapped.
This American Shoe thing also explains a lot of stupid country songs... like Shania Twirp's "Who's Bed have your Boots been Under?" because it would make sense that if you're doing the nasty in someone's bed, that'd be where you take your boots off...- in the past, in my teens, i remember thinking: "Why would his boots be under the bed? That makes no sense. Stupid cowboy" (No offense to any REAL cowboys out there)
And that other country song with lyrics like; "Kick off your boots, and let your hair down... givin' me that feeling that you might wanna mess around"... okay, so in my naivete i imagined them coming in and lounging on the couch.
Now that i think of it... if you're American and you're in the bedrrom and the girl is 'kickin' off her boots...and letting her hair down... is this a sure fire sign that she's getting ready to bump and grind?? Cuz when else would a person take their shoes off?
And what about showering, when they come out of the shower before bed, do they put shoes back on? are Americans ever bare or sock footed??
So many questions.
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