Shoes Required?

I was sitting in one of those uncomfortable chairs at Gate 3 in the Little Rock National Airport terminal listening for the 3rd time (at least!) to one of those announcements declaring the "final" departure call.

This time it was for a Continental flight to Newark and since I'm headed to DFW I paid little attention but I know I had been hearing it for the last 10 minutes or so. Besides, the guy running down the terminal as silent as a Ninja had my rapt attention. Clearly, he was no true Ninja because, after all, I could see him. No, this guy was silent because he was wearing only socks on his feet. Being no dummy I immediately realized this guy was running to catch his Newark flight. You know, it WAS three calls into its "final call" so that must make it really, really close to taking off, right?

If you're familiar with the LIT airport you know it's one straight terminal with security on one end and gates along the sides and at the other end. The Newark flight was at the far end opposite security.

So there I was thinking "here's another example of a passenger who's either always late for everything he does or someone with some really bad luck (car problem, overslept, etc)". I was hedging toward him being the guy who's always late - always running with no shoes to catch a plane. He was was dressed in business casual attire with a rather large backpack on his back. I'd also assumed this guy must have tucked his shoes into backpack because as he's running his hands are empty.

He'd disappeared from view for no more than 5 seconds when another familiar overhead page came across, "Attention in the concourse. Would the passenger that just left their XYZ at the security checkpoint please return to claim it?" This time XYZ was shoes. The guy seated next to me and I exchanged glances right before we both started laughing. That's right - the hurried Newark-bound traveler had run through security and left his shoes.

Over the next few minutes I began to realize that he wasn't going to sprint back to security and retrieve those shoes. Meanwhile, security continued the overhead page. He either completely forgot about the shoes until he was on the plane - and I have a hard time believing that - or he decided the trip outweighed the need to be shod when landing in Newark.

My mind has a tendency to wander and wonder and so I began wondering if Continental (or any airline for that matter) has an official policy on the absence of shoes. If so, is it the shoes or the bare feet that would cause such a policy to be issued? I mean, I wonder if socks alone are ok but bare feet are not? I know I've seen people wearing flip-flops so bare top feet are permissible. I've watched people clip toenails in coach before (blech!) and that's just gross.

All in all I wonder the outcome of the guy who provided me with some humor and some thought this morning.