The Sock Box
Once in awhile, a great idea comes along. You think to yourself, "Why didn't I think of this? This seems so simple now...I can't believe someone didn't come up with this concept a long time ago." The Sock Box is not one of these ideas.
The origin of the Sock Box is unknown. I'm sure my wife's family will claim credit for the idea, but I'm reasonably certain that it was devised by the Nazis during WW II as a means of torture in their concentration camps. Now, when you think, "Sock Box" you may be thinking of something like the picture shown above. Now that is a good idea. You match your socks, roll them together and neatly organize them into a nice little area just waiting to be hand-picked in the morning. It is as though they got "all dressed up" and are longing for you to choose them as part of your attire for the day.
But, alas, the fashionably elegant idea you see above is not the Sock Box that I know. No, my foot friends are doomed to spend the entirety of their short lives unfastidiously lumped together unmatched with the socks of 5 other people in a milk crate. You are now starting to get the picture. At least 10 minutes of every morning are spent looking for socks. You find one sock, and then hurriedly attempt to find the mate somewhere in that horrible pile with no guarantee that the mate is even in the Sock Box to begin with. We have even branched out a bit! Now there is a White Sock Box and a Colored Sock Box....sort of a "Jim Crow for feet" kind of thing. I'm not certain if this was a step in the right direction or the wrong direction. I would be interested to know your thoughts...in either case, the incredible thing about this whole situation is that my "In-Laws," whom, I should say at this point, I love dearly, think the Sock Box is a good idea. I'm not sure which part of your cerebrum or cerebellum are not functioning properly to allow you to accept something like the Sock Box as a good idea, but, nonetheless, it appears that the disease that causes this to happen is hereditary. I have come to find out that my wife's brother took the "Sock Box" with him when he was married while another of her brothers has more of a "Sock Pile" with the end-result being remarkably the same. (Had I known at the time I could have saved money on the milk crate and just had a pile perhaps my pain would have been eased a bit)
In any case, as you prepare each morning to go to work, or school, or whatever your day entails, perhaps you can remember me and my plight. And the next time you take your PAIR of socks out of your neatly organized drawer, maybe a quiet, "This one is for Mike" wouldn't hurt.
posted by Mike at 1/26/2005 08:00:00 AM
2 Comments:
I've lived with a "sock box" for quite a while. In our household it was not a purposeful idea, but rather a slow evolution from folding socks to throwing them in a mini laundry basket. Why we purchased a mini laundry basket that only had enough room for mismatched socks I still don't know. I can picture you looking for your sock mate early in the morning because that's me too. Usually it's dark because I leave for work before the kids get up. I finally broke down and started folding all the laundry myself just so I could rescue my socks from the sock basket - as it is affectionately known in our house. This didn't last very long. Now when I or my wife are getting too busy I can always tell because I find myself at the sock basket using up the time I "saved" when I folded the laundry. We also have a tendency to seperate our socks, but not by color. We are sexist sock sorters. This makes it a little easier since I don't have to dig through all of the pink and purple socks to find socks for work. For me it is a way to gage how my day will go. If I have a pair of socks folded in my drawer it will be a good day. If I am able to match a pair quickly out of the Male pile then it will be an average day. If it takes me a long time to find a match and I wind up looking in the Female pile it will be a bad day. If I can't match any of the 8 socks that are mine even after checking the dryer in the basement I figure I should have stayed in bed. Thanks for letting me ride on your venting coattails.
Mike - I have to tell you, I read your postings everyday because I derive great joy in peering into the minds of others. I actually believe that, that is my calling. I was really intrigued when I first received your email stating that you were going to begin blogging your thoughts publicly. I too keep a journal, but I wouldn't post it universally because it is simply for my own understanding. Now, I am not into sports at all, but you are and even though I don't understand a word of what you are saying when it comes to that, I read your entries with an open mind. However, after reading your entry on the sock box (which I think is a GREAT idea), I am a bit concerned about the way you guys are tracking your socks over there. I mean, wouldn't it be much more convenient to take the socks from the dryer and match them up and put them away into each person's room/drawer just as you would your underwear? Then you could sleep in longer in the morning knowing that your socks are all safely awaiting your choosing. I can understand how the male mind might accept this as a reasonable way of achieving full feather, but usually the female mind is a little more proficient when it comes to segregating clothing and putting them in their place. The whole idea of the sock box is that it is the fundamental beginning to making your life more convenient and efficient. Anyway, I found this posting quite amusing so I had to comment. Keep on Posting...!
Chrystie (your niece)
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