Monday, January 23, 2012

Of Sister Alexius and Socks

Tonight I was folding four loads of laundry all at once, and tossing socks into a giant heap to be dealt with last.

Seriously, I do not need variety in the socks I buy for my kids. I do not want two or three different styles in one package. Make them all white with grey heels and toes. Don't make some white with grey stripes on the top and some without. And for Pete's sake, don't toss two variations on the white with navy theme into the mix. I'll never make that mistake again.

Anyway, back to the point.

When I turned to tackle the mound of socks waiting to be paired up, I couldn't help but think about my great aunt, Sister Alexius.

Sister Alexius was my dad's aunt, and she was in a convent a couple hours away from the town I grew up in. A few times a year, she'd hop on the bus and come visit us.

Whenever Sister Alexius came she always wanted to help in some way, so my mom always had her pair and fold socks. So she would sit at the table with a giant laundry basket full to the top with socks (remember, there were eight kids in my family) and fold them for a couple of hours while she visited with my mom and us kids. It was a good way to keep her busy and out of the way at the same time.

That was the only time our socks were ever paired up and folded. Ever.

My mom would just pull all of the socks out of the dryer and toss them in that laundry basket, which we creatively referred to as the Sock Basket, in the back hall. When we needed socks we went to the basket and dug out two that matched.

This is further evidence that my mom is a genius. Think of all the time she saved!

Of course, we were always free to pair and fold our own socks, and we always did Dad's dress socks. He needed the help, since he's blue-black color blind. Otherwise, we had to wait for Sister Alexius to visit.

I wonder if she ever realized that her special job of pairing and folding socks was a job no one else in the house ever did?

No matter. The thought of it put a smile on my face tonight as I dealt with my own pile of socks.

And it made me vow to install a Sock Basket as soon as possible.

© Trippin' Mama 2012

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love your stories. They make me smile and chuckle. I can relate to this. I used to babysit for a family with eight kids. They never put clothes away. The just had baskets of clean clothes to pick from.

Also your food allergy stories hit a common chord with me. My niece was allergic to all dairy, wheat, eggs, beef, pork, and probaly a few others I have forgotten. My sister worked really hard to feed her in a healthful way. She bought goat meat, used rice flour, and soy dairy. My niece adjusted fine. She did always ask to smell the things she couldn't eat. She has grown out of all of the food allergies.