A custom I've got to get accustomed to

Since I've joined mommy groups and have taken my daughter to a quite a bit of playdates at mom's houses there is one thing that I noticed quick:  You need to take your shoes off at the door.  None of the hosts tell anyone to do it, but I guess a New Englander house rule is to walk around the house shoeless.  I have very, very rarely experienced this in Texas.  To be honest I don't even remember having the social pressure to do it even once there, but my memory is not the best and my husband claims that we have experienced this so I will go with what he says.  I do recall attending a couple of playdates in Texas before we moved and we all kept our shoes on.  Maybe with the mom's in the east coast it is just a common sense practice to not get the floor dirty with what our shoes drag in since we've all got small children that are playing on the floor.  I just don't know why we don't do it in the south.  I still forget sometimes, but when I look down and see everyone in socks I quickly go to the area where all the shoes are congregated.  Man, I don't know if I can walk around people's houses barefoot when summer comes.  I already have a little bit of an issue with only wearing my socks!