Shoes and Sheets

[joanne0012]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "naamagatus" <naama_gat at h...> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I had a discussion with a friend of mine a few days ago on an 
> interesting aspect of American culture (as seen through TV, of 
> course). She claimed that in a lot of TV series, especially teen 
> series such as Beverly Hills ?????? (never can remember that zip 
> code),

90210

> So, do *you* lie on your bed with your shoes on? Do members of your 
> family? Friends and neighbours? Is it a common custom? Is it common 
> in teen culture maybe? Is it prevalent on TV or is my friend nuts?

Can't say that I've noticed it on TV, either way.  I grew up near Boston in ZIP 
code 02190 (an "anagram" of the TV site ZIP) and we certainly never put out 
shoes on the bed. I don't know whether they do things differently in California, or 
whether TV kids keep their shoes on because they're on a set rather than in a 
real house or because it would break the flow of the story for them to stop to 
take off the shoes.

My own teens have been trained to take off their shoes as soon as they enter 
the house!  When they were younger, I impressed them with basic hygiene 
lessons in dramatic ways: Don't drink the bath water, your dirty feet have been 
in there.  Wash your hands when you come home from the mall, everything you 
touched there has already been touched by somebody that picks their nose.  And 
take your shoes off when you come in the house, you just walked up a sidewalk 
that some dog once pooped on, do you want that on the livingroom rug that 
you're going to sit on later?  I'm certainly not germ-phobic, but I do believe in 
basic precautions1