# I Like New Socks
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 7, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122 "2004-06-07T17:14:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/21 "2004-06-07T20:55:30Z")
After living together for 5 years, I have just recently succeeded in convincing my wife that socks are not to be folded into each other. Rather, they are to be matched up and folded in half. She’s been amazed at how long the elastic is lasting.
Next up, convincing her that silverware gets loaded in the dishwasher with the handles in the basket (only exception is steak knives). This may take a little longer.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/22 "2004-06-07T21:32:33Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#):
>
> “The Joy of Socks”
[Maggie Drummond (12/31/88)](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0860515524/qid=1086643647/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-1276468-9906404?v=glance&s=books)
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/23 "2004-06-07T21:34:03Z")
Note: the above date could be an indication that the site I got it from didn’t know the real date. It also said the book had zero pages.
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### Author:  [@kittenlm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenlm)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/24 "2004-06-07T22:17:29Z")
Ohhh…I am soooo lucky. To have a husband who is absolutely 100% thrilled about something as little as new socks.
I love you honey!
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/25 "2004-06-07T22:35:13Z")
Hmmm…does this mean I’ve set my sights too low? I mean, I really like things such as new computer equipment too. 😉
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### Author:  [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/26 "2004-06-07T23:55:17Z")
For me, putting on a brand-new pair of socks for the first time is one of those non-sexual orgasmic experiences that y’all were talking about earlier.
A few months ago, I finally bought my first pack of new socks in about 5 years. Putting them on was such a sublime experience that I’ve started being a lot more critical about all my other socks. Used to be, I’d only get rid of a pair if they had a hole or if the elastic had completely gone. Now I’m studying them intently, desperate to find the slightest imperfection so I have an excuse to throw them out and buy some new ones.
A friend of mine said that if he ever won the lottery, the first change in his life would be to have a new pair of socks every day and throw them out after wearing them once. After they’ve been washed, even just once, the feeling’s just not quite the same.
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### Author:  [@Lady\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Ice)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/27 "2004-06-08T00:05:38Z")
Put me down as another who would wear a pair only one day and then throw them out. However, due to the fact that I wear my socks with those Adidas pool sandals that don’t have the smooth insole, I go through socks like crazy in the summer. They wear holes in them rather quickly, especially since I like a tight fitting sock. (I buy mine in the boys’ department)
Lots of new sock goodness in the summertime.
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### Author:  [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/28 "2004-06-08T00:18:17Z")
_I like new socks and I cannot lie…_
Thanks. I’ve been singing this all day and can’t think of any further lines.
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/29 "2004-06-08T00:59:37Z")
**screech-owl** , I feel your pain. I’m usually pretty descent at whipping up a tune, but for the life of me I can’t come up with a parody here. So I’ve had that same, single line running through my head since I did the OP. :smack:
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### Author:  [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/30 "2004-06-08T01:25:41Z")
So great minds DO think (or not think) alike!
As for me, I am a sock folder, whereas (former)Roommate is a [Holey] Roller. (Seriously, a big toenail and broken elastic problem here, folks…)
\*I like new socks and I cannot lie
No other undies can deny
That when your socks are new
And they’re more than crew
And not hangin’ round your heels
You get…
Feelings…\*
(Sorry, just watched _Shrek_ a while ago.)
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### Author:  [@International\_Playboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/International_Playboy)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/31 "2004-06-08T15:19:53Z")
I have an adversion to socks myself. I don’t know where I got it, some repressed childhood trauma or something, I guess. My socks are ok to handle with bare hands, but I hate touching other people’s socks. I am not one of those people who wear socks without shoes in their home. Yes, the shoes come off as soon as possible, but so do the socks. Since living in Hawaii for a couple of years in the late 60s, I prefer “barefootin’.”
I hate changing styles of socks. For decades, I wore a terrycloth sock, except with shorts, where I wore a white crew sock. I think the brand was “towncraft,” I’d get them from JC Penny. A couple of years ago, they discontinued the style, can’t find it anywhere. So I had to settle on a different type of material. The terry ones I had were so old, the nape was worn off of most of them. I was amazed that when I finally broke down and got new ones, that my shoes didn’t stink anymore.
And don’t get me started on this current fad of socks with sandals!
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### Author:  [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/32 "2004-06-08T15:28:35Z")
I wear fun socks. My husband doesn’t. Sorting socks at our house looks like:
Red knee-highs with evil cats- mine
White sports- his
Black and white striped knee-high- mine
Gray sports- his
Pale blue with baby birds and ‘chicks rule’ woven in- mine
Black sports- his
I love fun socks.
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### Author:  [@harmless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmless)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/33 "2004-06-08T15:49:28Z")
> [@screech-owl](#):
>
> _I like new socks and I cannot lie…_
>
> Thanks. I’ve been singing this all day and can’t think of any further lines.
That’s the first thing I thought when reading the OP.
I just wasn’t going to be the one to do that to you guys. 😛
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### Author:  [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/34 "2004-06-08T17:04:25Z")
I love new socks but I hate buying them. I can never find socks that fit me so after the first wearing, they’re too big. Nothing I do will make them shrink. I even by socks in the girls section. They still don’t fit. I don’t understand. My feet aren’t that small. They’re size 6-1/2 slim. But they just don’t fit.
I rarely wear socks in the Spring, Summer and Fall. In the winter, I wear socks in to work and then I change into sandals when I get there.
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### Author:  [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/35 "2004-06-08T17:57:15Z")
I wish I could find a cite for this, but without Nexus Lexus I’m coming up blank.
Paraphrasing:
(Comedian?) Jerry Lewis interviewed on CNN’s (Talk Show Host?) Larry King Live (prior to being his cancer / being hooked up to an oxygen machine).
_You know Larry, I **never** wear a pair of socks more than once - after I take them off, I throw them in the garbage. I have enough money so I can afford the luxury of putting on a fresh new pair of socks everyday._
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### Author:  [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/36 "2004-06-08T18:18:00Z")
You know those fine-gauge white cotton ankle socks that have little pompoms on the back? Now see, I was born in 1980, and when I was 2 1/2 my babysitter had those socks, and I really, really wanted them. I think it was my first consumer urge (though Froot Loops might tie). But I guess they didn’t make those socks for 2 1/2 year old feet, and by the time my feet grew, they stopped selling those socks. Well, those socks are back in stores now, for grown-up lady feet, which I happen to have, and darned if I didn’t buy me some, and darned if I didn’t feel a tremendous, twenty-one-year sort of closure when I did.
I don’t think I have any identical pairs of socks. Aside from pompom socks, mine are mostly cashmere-blend winter socks with Nordic-type designs knit into them. I buy them from TJ Maxx at the end of winter, when they’re on clearance for like $3 a pair. I really, really like my cashmere-blend socks. And I don’t mind matching them when I do laundry, either. Some people do jigsaw puzzles or word jumbles, but not me. I match up socks.
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### Author:  [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/37 "2004-06-08T18:18:22Z")
In re: “The Joy of Socks”
> [@Jeff Olsen](#):
>
> [Maggie Drummond (12/31/88)](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0860515524/qid=1086643647/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-1276468-9906404?v=glance&s=books)
I should have known! That’s kinda funny, actually. I wonder if it actually sold many copies? Maybe I should write “Socks’ Appeal”, it might sell! It’d have lots of pictures of new socks in it and be a sort of coffee table book.
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/38 "2004-06-08T18:22:21Z")
Generally much better than Lexis-Nexis, I ran a Factiva search – nothing on Lewis only wearing socks once. The closest I found was a mention that during his annual telethon, “He’ll change socks often”.
However, Factiva’s daily _Larry King Live_ transcripts date back to July 31, 2000, so if that story appeared before then…
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### Author:  [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/39 "2004-06-08T19:37:41Z")
> [@Hal Briston](#):
>
> Generally much better than Lexis-Nexis, I ran a Factiva search…_Larry King Live_ transcripts date back to July 31, 2000, so if that story appeared before then…
Most likely before 7/00. Why that factoid stuck in my head all this time is anyone’s guess. But an even more important question: Why in the hell would anyone wanna waste server space storing Larry King Live transcipts for 46 months - And what the hell was I doing even watching two people I have no liking for ??
The best I could do is [ActorTrivia.com](http://www.actortrivia.com/jerry_lewis.html): (How reputable a source is anyone’s guess).
> [@](#):
>
> Jerry is known as clothes horse. He gives away suits rather than having them cleaned and **refuses to wear a pair of socks more than once**.
The suit thing (which I don’t recall him commenting on) is even stranger than the sock policy. But at least he doesn’t donate his used undergarments to the Salvation Army with overstated value for the tax write-off.
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### Author:  [@International\_Playboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/International_Playboy)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2004, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-new-socks/249122/40 "2004-06-09T13:49:20Z")
I meant to mention in my post on not liking socks, that when I replaced my thin, worn out terry socks with new, cushioned sole socks, they did feel good. But like others have said, they don’t feel as nice after a washing or two.
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