There are now
four unmatched pair of socks in my sock drawer and the whereabouts of their
counterparts are a mystery to me. I do all my own washing and hang my clothes
on a drying rack on my small verandah so there is no chance that my missing
socks have been left at a Laundromat. My verandah is enclosed and so there is
also no way that any could have blown away. I have searched every square inch
of my tiny apartment for the missing socks but they are not to be found.
I can only
assume that the sock fairy has struck again.
This has
happened nearly all my life. The sock fairy is mischievous and irksome. I
imagine the fairy to be female. She is impish and pernicious and has gossamer
wings.
She is driving
me mad.
My grandpa
once told me never to run in the rain with my socks on. My grandpa often gave
me strange but profound tidbits of wisdom. He was full of pithy sayings and I
have heeded them all. I have never nor will ever run in the rain with my socks
on. Grandpa died when I was twenty five years old. He died on my birthday. His
was the first funeral I ever attended and I recall as if it were yesterday
being told of his death. My Dad rang to tell me of his passing. Hearing the
news felt like my heart had been ripped from my body. My weeping was
unrestrained and I could not be consoled.
Until that
time I had never realized that the pain of loss and sorrow could be so
deep and dark and that it felt so much like fear.
Warren Buffett
is one of the wealthiest men in the world. He buys and sells countries and is
known in Financial markets as the "Oracle of Omaha". It is quite
possible that he now owns Greece. He would have got it for a bargain price.
Buffett is much quoted and once said:
“Whether
we're talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it
is marked down"
The sock has
been around for a very long time. The word is derived from the Latin 'soccus'.
A soccus was actually a type of shoe. At some point in time the Romans began to
slip their sandals over the top of their soccus for outdoor wear and soccus
were worn only indoors.
The Romans
didn't invent the sock though – the Egyptians did. Archeologists have found
remnants of socks in tombs that date back to the fourth century. The most
famous of all Mongolians - Attila the Hun was also a big wearer of socks. He
apparently wore very colorful socks as he rode into battle and slaughtered his
way across central Europe.
The father of
the modern sock is an Englishman named William Lee. He was a Reverend from the
county of Nottinghamshire in England. The Reverend Lee invented a machine that
could knit socks out of wool and cotton. This was in the late sixteenth
century. History records that when the good Reverend first endeavored to patent
his machine, Queen Elizabeth the First - who was the Monarch of the time -
initially refused to grant it. Her refusal was based on the fear that such a
machine would jeopardize the employment of the many thousands of women of
England who made their living knitting socks by hand.
Nottinghamshire
is where Robin the Hood lived. I am not too sure of the time lines of Robin the
Hood and William Lee but it is quite possible that the Reverend may well have
socked the Hood.
I like to
think so.
Reverend Lee's
sock knitting machine was eventually patented and the mass production of socks
began in earnest. The machine he invented was a type of loom. Loom is a most
excellent word and is one which I will endeavor to use verbally in a sentence
tomorrow. I like saying it and I am saying it out loud as I am writing this
now. It sounds a bit minacious.
A loom is a
machine that is used to weave cloth. Including socks. It is also something that
is ominous and impending. When I think of loom I also think of doom. I am
saying both words out loud now as I write this. I think that perhaps I am
losing my mind. Irrespective, I have now decided that I will try and utter both
'loom' and 'doom' in the same sentence to someone tomorrow. I shall choose my
victim carefully and they will likely be one of the English with whom I work.
I hope the
sock fairy is listening to me say 'loom' and 'doom' out loud as I sit alone
here in my apartment, tapping away at my keyboard. I hope that I am striking
some degree of fear into the nefarious creature.
I
hope that she will stop taking my socks.
No comments :
Post a Comment