BAREFOOTIN'

I am always barefooted in the house. Yeah, I know, "You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl!"

One evening, we had eight people for dinner to have some of Norman's famous soup Caldo Gallego. One of my friends brought her four-year-old daughter. The child was bored and restless and I took her to the family room and showed her the toy box, but she was soon back in the dining room playing underneath the table.

Suddenly, I felt the unmistakable feeling of someone sucking on my toes. I SCREAMED and jumped up and there was the little girl, peeking from underneath the table, just giggling and laughing hysterically. Her mother, with great aplomb, asked, "Were you sucking Sue's toes?" Everyone screamed with laughter and I didn't know if it was from my reaction, or from the blase, matter-of-fact method the mother used to elicit the information. Obviously, toe-sucking was not a recent development in the child's repertoire! The little girl was still giggling and her mother said, "Don't do that!" I thought, "OMG, I've had my shoes off for hours and my toes must be filthy!" but I didn't say anything!

Do I think the mother handled it correctly? ABSOLUTELY!