The top drawer of my dresser is the lowly sock drawer. The socks have to share the drawer with old matchbooks, loose change, single cuff links and other untoward paraphernalia. Socks are one of the more underrated items of apparel. In most cases they are only glimpsed unless you are in a kilt or plus fours and then they have become part of your statement. My father had a fetish about socks that drooped about the ankle and throughout his life he may have come to be the only man in the world who wore calf garters. My mother said to me years ago, "It's getting harder and harder to find garters for dad. I went to Eatons yesterday and they only had two left in the warehouse. I bought both pairs. "
Setting aside statement socks and calf garters, the run of the mill socks could be described as foot underwear. They have no status with the average male though they may with the occasional sock fetishist. In the process of examining feet in the office for many years I found people were often reluctant to remove their socks.If they came with a problem with a single foot it was always necessary for me to examine the other foot in comparison. I always asked them to remove the other sock to compare the feet. This provided some discomfiture to the occasional patient who had taken the precaution to wash only the problematic foot.
I don't recall ever seeing memorable socks on any male because perhaps they are under the radar. I guess it's the fate of the unseen and unappreciated that they are neglected. Covered up by the shoe below and trouser leg above, and coping with sweaty feet, over long toenails, stones in the shoe, projecting heel callouses and corns, hammer toe, fasciitis, steeped in athletes foot fungus, and constantly rubbed by old shoe leather! What a life of duress for the unloved. Damned by life shortening toe and heel holes. They are never darned in this day and age as I observe, though my mother darned socks in the olden days. When I was a student I tried to darn but ended up just sewing the edges together so the socks became too small. A useful alternative was to cut my toenails.
At least my mother and I tried to care for what can truly be described as the down trodden!
Setting aside statement socks and calf garters, the run of the mill socks could be described as foot underwear. They have no status with the average male though they may with the occasional sock fetishist. In the process of examining feet in the office for many years I found people were often reluctant to remove their socks.If they came with a problem with a single foot it was always necessary for me to examine the other foot in comparison. I always asked them to remove the other sock to compare the feet. This provided some discomfiture to the occasional patient who had taken the precaution to wash only the problematic foot.
I don't recall ever seeing memorable socks on any male because perhaps they are under the radar. I guess it's the fate of the unseen and unappreciated that they are neglected. Covered up by the shoe below and trouser leg above, and coping with sweaty feet, over long toenails, stones in the shoe, projecting heel callouses and corns, hammer toe, fasciitis, steeped in athletes foot fungus, and constantly rubbed by old shoe leather! What a life of duress for the unloved. Damned by life shortening toe and heel holes. They are never darned in this day and age as I observe, though my mother darned socks in the olden days. When I was a student I tried to darn but ended up just sewing the edges together so the socks became too small. A useful alternative was to cut my toenails.
At least my mother and I tried to care for what can truly be described as the down trodden!
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