Sensing Societal Assimilations

I was trying for alliteration in that title, can anyone suggest how I could pack more sibilance in that?

At the Storylines Family Day they had some big padded bed-like areas for kids to flop down and watch Kiwi Moon on the big-screen TV. Since Haley can smell TV screens the way that wolves can smell fear, she took off ahead of us as we were leaving the main hall of the venue and entered a side room where a storyteller was plying the crowd on one end and a Capital E production of Kiwi Moon was playing at low volume on the other.

We rounded the corner into the room and I was craning my head and looking around a little when Joanne nudged me and pointed at Haley who had, without any prompting or even an example to follow from other kids, removed her shoes and left them neatly by the side of the big padded bed-like couch and flopped down on her belly with her sock-feet dangling comfortably in the air.

Leaving your shoes behind and moving about in a relaxed and informal manner is clearly a hallmark of not just Kiwi schoolkids but of the people as a whole. I continue to be amazed at the shoelessness at work, especially in what would normally be considered semi-formal work situations. At the gym, half the people leave their rather expensive leather shoes under the changing room bench rather than in the lockers themselves where they'd be safe from burgling under the lock-and-key that the gym staff give you as you check in at the front desk. It's as if to say, "Yeah, but no one would take your SHOES."

Discovering Haley so voluntarily and comfortably relaxing into this shoe protocol was truly touching and a feeling I'll never forget.