Sock It to Me

A good friend suggested I blog about socks and their multi uses. She wears a pair on her hands when we walk on chilly mornings. I like to think of them as South Georgia mittens. We don’t have much cold weather here so why invest in mittens when a pair of socks will do?

Then one of my kids laughed at me the other day because as we were scrambling to get out the door I was caught with my arm under the covers at the foot of my bed pulling out a pair of socks to slip on (before my shoes) so we could go. Flip flops work so much better when the weather is warm, at least. But since the first sock got a laugh I continued pulling out socks even though I only needed two to complete the task at hand. Of course I had worn all those various socks to bed that week and that’s how they’d come to be tucked under the covers at the foot of my bed in the first place. Fortunately the dirty laundry basket was easily in tossing range and that’s where the socks I wasn't planning on wearing went.

And there’s the match or mismatch sock issue. All through elementary school (when your parents have more say so in what you wear) the kids mostly wear matching socks. Crazy sock days are the exception. By the time you get to middle school there is an enforced dress code that governs much of what you wear with the exception of your socks. Middle school kids wear mismatched socks all the time. Then suddenly you get to high school and mismatch is out and matching socks are back in. My high school aged granddaughter likes to wear the no show socks with flats (matching of course) and if they weren't no show everyone would enjoy the neon colors they come in, but of course that would defeat the purpose no matter how cool.

I once wore mismatched socks to school (as a kindergarten teacher) and not on a crazy sock day and was called out on it by a first grade teacher in the teacher’s lounge. Ever since, I like to wear matching socks as long as there’s a possibility that they might show.