Yesterday when I was outside gardening I realized I was on my last pair of socks. I always wear socks inside my wellington boots , even if it is 100 degrees. Which made me start to think about socks.
When both my boys were living at home I would be forever finding socks all around the house. They usually were rolled up in a ball as I think most teenage boys throw their socks at something automatically when they take them off. Some socks ( very few) would land in the laundry basket but some of the other places they were found in were quite a mystery; under the seat of the car, always at the farthest point under the bed , behind the couch and quite often out in the yard. Not always the boys fault with this last place as we always had dogs and old ( and new) socks were and are, a favorite play toy for dogs. Something about the smell I think.
Mike has a plethora of socks and even now always seems to be buying new socks. I, on the other hand, have just a few pairs which get worn out, holey or just lost. Which leads me on to my thought 'Where do lost/missing socks go?
When I do laundry I just hate washing socks. I sort them into lights and darks. That is okay. I get them out from the dryer and I have this mountainous pile of socks to sort but do they ever match up into pairs again. NO!
Have you noticed even when you buy socks in a set , say 4 pairs all the same color or pattern, after they have been washed they never seem to match up again. I spread them all out over the bed and perform the matching game. The ones that have a different knit, the short ones from the long ones but always there are some that never quite seem to match be it a variation in color shade, a different feel to the material, wrong size and of course , at the end of the game ,there is always the inevitable lone sock.
So I look in the dryer and its not there. I look on the floor by the washing machine and the bedroom , under the bed but no matching sock. This happens time and time again. Occasionally at a later laundry time, I might find the missing sock returning from its vacation and be able to match it but I still have a forever growing pile of odd socks waiting for its partner to turn up.
I noticed when I mentioned this to a friend she said the same thing happened to her . Just where do all these missing socks go? So if you want an answer to a question the easiest way is to 'Google “ it. Right ,so that's what I did. Would you believe there is a”Bureau of Missing Socks”. I thought it might be rock group or a infamous painting but no. It's supposedly an organization set up by the USA government at the time of the civil war to deal with issuing socks to its soldiers and continues to this day going through all kinds of strange and interesting changes. As I read all about it, it sounded like it would be the plot of a zany movie. Read about it here ( with your tongue in your cheek) http://www.funbureau.com/History/history.html
and decide for yourself if it is our tax dollars at work or just a wonderful fabrication. I still think it would make a great movie! And as an added bonus you'll find out how the catch phrase “Sock it to me “ originated. I bet , like me you thought it came from the TV series “Laugh In”
So I continued researching .
Well then I found out about sock gnomes and sock goblins. I bet you didn't know about these mysterious creatures either. It seems they are arch enemies . The sock gnomes have 4 feet and they are the ones that pilfer the socks but along come the sock goblins,the good guys, probably they wear white hats, and they are the ones that bring the missing socks back. I don't think they are winning this game so far at least in my house.
