A Word Edgewise by Mary Joe Clendenin

Last Updated 01/20/06

For more literature go to Clendenin Books
Email: mjclen@our-town.com

Did You Keep Your Silk Stockings in the 'Frig'?

          Last week when husband Ray decided to straighten out his sock drawer, he found eight unmatched socks. Made me think how rich most of us are in socks these days. I can remember the times when that was not the case. We didn’t change socks everyday when washing was a major job and we had only three or four pair. For work, we wore one pair until they were stiff and there was no mistaking which foot they fit. (No problem for play. I went barefoot until the first freeze.)

For school we did have anklets in colors to wear, sometimes, if we checked the night before and hand washed the ones we wanted. Didn’t match shoes because we had a pair of school shoes for the year, tennis shoes usually, because we wore the same ones to play ball.

Cold winters, in younger years, meant long cotton stockings, pulled up to underwear. The legs of the mid-thigh, one-piece underwear were folded and the socks pulled up over. I remember a loop on the underwear for a fastener for the stockings. My sister wore of those more than I did. During my time we wore cover-alls, striped blue like men’s suspender over-alls, then stockings didn’t have to be so long. Even for dress-up women didn’t have the pretty sheer stockings they do now, although silk manufacture was pioneered by the wife of a Chinese Emperor 3,000 years B.C., it must have been the 1920s when silk stockings became popular here. Those pretty sheer, hose with the seam up the back, were the things of dreams, to be treated so carefully. A run in the stocking went from top to bottom—unless quickly dabbed with fingernail polish to stop it. I remember hearing, that if you kept your silk hose in the refrigerator, they would last longer.

Nylon, the first man-made fiber, was produced by Du Pont in 1937, and soon changed fashion as well as all industry. The first sheer nylon hose went on the market in the United States in 1940—but cheering stopped almost immediately. WAR! All nylon went into the production of parachutes and other critical supplies. Garter belts, garters or corsets were required to keep the wrinkles out and the seam straight. Still, the beauty of those sheer hose, in several shades including the glamorous black, that were so mush more durable then silk. What could be better?

Well, better came in 1959 when Panti-Legs were introduced because the president of Glen Raven Mills heard his wife complain about her problems with nylons and garter belts. At first the hose were seamed stockings stitched to nylon panties. Stripper Sally Rand begged the producer to make seamless panty hose. He, also, improved the product by making them more elastic. Now they come in all sizes, all weights and many colors—and I dare say, men, too, enjoy the joys of their own mixed yarn socks. They no longer have to wear supporters to hold up dress socks, nor have to roll the tops to keep their shoes from eating their socks. Their socks come with nice elastic bands that stay up.

Back to Ray’s problem. He still hasn’t found mates to his eight odd socks. If I can’t convince him that the washing machine ate them, I may have to clean out my own sock drawer to find the mates. Have you gone to the library for a good book to read over the holidays? They have some good new ones. Tell Chris I sent you.

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