# Are you wearing "herbies?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 19, 2023, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782 "2023-06-19T17:42:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782/21 "2023-06-20T15:21:13Z")
Yeah, my apologies to any Herberts here, but when I hear “Herbie”, I do think of a teenage dork, wearing white socks with sandals. By the way, I do try hard to not make assumptions about people by what they wear… but damn, dress socks with shorts (and especially with sandals\*) does make someone look like they have no idea how dweeby they are. \*eta: or better yet, flip flops, so their tube socks have to bunch up between the first and second toes. Ewww… ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782/22 "2023-06-20T15:24:21Z")
Heh ( sheepish smirk ) They’re the only kind I wear. They’re never visible though since I only wear brogans, or pull-on leather Wellington or Frye type boots. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782/23 "2023-06-20T16:14:03Z")
> **[Are you Herbert? | Star trek posters, Movie tv, Classic tv](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/are-you-herbert--58265388902251923/)** > > Jun 28, 2013 - This Pin was discovered by Sharon Roseberry. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782/24 "2023-06-20T16:28:04Z")
I went to school in northern Indiana in the last 1960s/early 1970s. I was occasionally teased for wearing white socks, but nobody ever called them Herbies. It was just “Are you a White Sox fan?” ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782/25 "2023-06-21T03:17:56Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > For the record: my current socks are Looney Tunes “Tasmanian Devil” socks My preference is the sloths from the DMV in _Zootopia_. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782/26 "2023-06-21T12:45:37Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I lived in Flint and Livonia (right next to Detroit) from 1964-1971 I know there are several Michiganders on this board, but I didn’t know you were a former Michigander, however briefly, Qadgop-- for the first 6 or 7 years of my life. I used to work in Livonia (years later, of course; no child labor laws were broken). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782/27 "2023-06-21T14:54:17Z")
Yeah, I left Wisconsin at age 6, as my dad climbed the corporate ladder. So I got to be an honorary ‘Flintstone’ with 2 years in that city, followed by 4+ years in Livonia, where I became one of the original mall rats by hanging out at the Livonia Mall in elementary and junior high school. There I learned the term ‘witches night’ for Halloween Eve (which also happens to be my birthday). No ‘herbies’ though. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782/28 "2023-06-21T15:06:57Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I got to be an honorary ‘Flintstone’ Haha, though it’s a perfectly obvious nickname now that I hear it, this is the first time I’ve heard that residents of Flint refer to themselves as ‘Flintstones’. > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > There I learned the term ‘witches night’ for Halloween Eve (which also happens to be my birthday). I always knew it as “Devil’s Night”. In the suburbs it meant writing profanity on car windows with soap and throwing eggs or rotten tomatoes at houses. Also toilet-papering front yard trees. I was mostly a good kid, but one Devil’s Night when I was around 14 or so, I did run with a bad crowd, and I’m not proud to admit I threw a few tomatoes and soaped a few windows. In the city of Detroit though, Devil’s Night meant full-on arson, burning down abandoned houses. At its peak in the 80s, hundreds of house fires a night overwhelmed the Detroit Fire Dept. A community movement called Angel’s Night finally (mostly) stopped the widespread arson, starting in the 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782/29 "2023-06-21T15:08:27Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I always knew it as “Devil’s Night”. Yes, you’re right. I mis-recalled. Devil’s night it was. And it sure got out of hand a lot, including during the riots of the late 60’s. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782/30 "2023-06-22T16:01:17Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Devil’s night it was. And it sure got out of hand a lot, including during the riots of the late 60’s. As a kid, I always thought it was weird that “Devil’s Night” was the night before Halloween, not the night after. The very phrase “trick or treat” implies that if a treat is not given, then that house will pay the consequences. If Devil’s Night was the next night, the non-candy giving houses could then be pranked. Not that I’m endorsing the idea, it just seemed like it would have made more sense. ---
**Author:** ![Galactus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galactus/32/3581_2.png) [@Galactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galactus)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782/31 "2023-06-26T02:31:59Z")
Are you saying this wasn’t cool? [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/Ro88orE.jpeg "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/Ro88orE) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782/32 "2023-06-26T13:03:51Z")
Not familiar with “Herbie;” '60s Catholic school term was, “Fairy socks.” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782/33 "2023-06-26T17:31:49Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I always thought it referenced the ultimate nerd comic book character, Herbie Popnecker aka “Herbie The Fat Fury”. This is what I came in to suggest. I never heard the term before, but this seemed like the obvious souyrce. Herbie was a character in the brand Z American Comics Group (ACG) series **Herbie** that ran from 1963 to 1967. I don’t see him wearing white socks in any images (heck, I can’t se his socks at all), but if was wearing any, they’d likely be white > **[Herbie Popnecker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie_Popnecker)** > > Herbie Popnecker is a fictional comic book character who first appeared in Forbidden Worlds #73 in December 1958, published by American Comics Group. He was created by Richard E. Hughes (using the pseudonym "Shane O'Shea") and Ogden Whitney. > Herbie is an atypical hero - a short, obese, unemotional, terse, unstylish boy. Deriving some of his powers from genetics and some from magical lollipops he obtains from a salesman (from a mysterious realm called "the Unknown"), Herbie can carry on detailed ... [![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie_Popnecker#/media/File:HerbiePopnecker.jpg) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie_Popnecker#/media/File:HerbiePopnecker.jpg) Actually, on the cover of Herbie #1 he appears to be wearing white socks > **[Herbie #1 1964-ACG-1st issue-Ogden Whitney-mermaid-American Flag | Comic Books...](https://www.hipcomic.com/listing/herbie-1-1964-acg-1st-issue-ogden-whitney-mermaid-american-flag/12528011/?shopping=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=17330148932&utm_content&utm_term&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuK-l1Lvh_wIVY_HjBx0whgDCEAQYAyABEgIyF_D_BwE)** > > Condition: Condition is VG- . Please see item description for more information. > > Grade: VG- > Herbie Issue: 1 / Year: 1964 Condition: VG--First Issue -Ogden Whitney art -Fidel Castro, Sonny Liston, Nikita Krushchev, Lyndon & Ladybird Johnson,... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wearing-herbies/985782.md?page=1)