Pink Socks

I was just thinking about what beautiful stockings I have on my front legs when I remembered a story about the Duke and his socks.

It was a cold, cold winter and the Duchess couldn’t seem to keep her feet warm. She complained incessantly about her freezing toes so the Duke suggested she wear a pair of his socks. Since the Duke is on his feet a lot his socks are thick and soft. So the Duchess agreed to try it and found, to her delight, that her feet were toasty warm all day. But the Duchess, being a woman, declared the Dukes socks to be too dingy for her to wear and so they set out to buy the Duke new socks. They settled on a large package that could be divided. She would keep six pairs and he could have the other six. Now the Duchess is a real persnickety female and she decided there had to be a way to keep their new socks separated since they all looked the same. So she got the brilliant idea to paint a pink fluorescent dot, about the size of a kibble, on the toe of each of her socks! Then they would always know which socks were hers.

When the pink paint dried and the Duchess wore her new socks she discovered a problem. The paint had hardened into a little ball that irritated her tender feet. So the socks eventually found their way into the Dukes sock drawer. Well, the Duke was loathe to wear them but the Duchess said “Don’t be silly, no one will ever see them through your shoes”. So over time the Duke became accustomed to wearing the socks with the pink dots and pretty much forgot about it.

Much later that year, when the seasons had changed and the sun was warm, the Duke headed off to Costco in his khaki shorts and sandals. Now the Duke is not one to wear his sandals without socks and he was blissfully unaware of the bright pink spots on his toes. He walked all over Costco, filling his cart with groceries and toys, and then headed for the check out register to pay his bill. The store was full of people and the lines were long. In front of him waited a mother and her daughter who looked to be about 5 or 6 years old. The child studied the Duke for several minutes before quite loudly asking “Mister, why do you have pink dots on your socks?” Suddenly there was a hush in the crowd as the Duke’s face turned the same color as his socks. The child’s mother raised her eyebrows as if to say “Well?” So the pink-faced Duke calmly explained to the little girl that his wife painted the dots on her socks so he wouldn’t wear them. And all around him the chuckles began, bubbling into laughter and moving like a ripple in a pond through every checkout line. My poor Duke. It’s a good thing he has a good sense of “husband humor”. The Duchess still laughs out loud whenever she washes a pink sock.