I used to rarely think about socks. Socks were just socks, what was there to think about? It seemed like a given that we should wear socks, just like eating and sleeping, no need for much thought. But now that I've had my fill, I've learned to ponder things. The most trivial of things, even socks. Looking back at wearing socks...
| I used to rarely think about socks. Socks are just socks; what's there to think about? It's a self-evident fact that people wear socks, just like we eat and sleep, without needing to ponder over it. But now that I'm full-fed, I've learned to think about issues. The most trivial thing is none other than socks. Looking back on the experience of wearing socks is actually quite interesting. I don't have much memory of wearing short cotton socks when I was little, but the impression of wearing thick, long cotton socks in winter is quite deep. The biggest characteristic of cotton products is their lack of elasticity, while human legs grow in an inverted manner, that is, they are thinner at the bottom and thicker at the top. If the socks are short, at worst they will slip down from the ankle and gather at the shoe opening. The shoes prevent them from slipping further, so it doesn't greatly affect their function. However, this is not the case with long stockings, which serve to keep warm. At that time, we wore old outer clothes as undergarments. The empty, loose legs of the underwear were stuffed into the long stockings, blocking the heat-dissipating and ventilating outlet. From head to toe (with the upper underwear tucked inside the pants), the body formed a unified defense line, like the Great Wall with beacon towers. Due to the special function of long stockings, the sock opening must stay in its proper place and not slip down. However, cotton socks, being non-elastic, are destined to slip. Therefore, people had to resort to external force to keep them in place. At that time, there were elastic items available, namely flat elastic bands. So, various sizes and colors of pre-sewn elastic bands were sold on the streets, specifically for people to put around the opening of long stockings, that is, the "waist" of the lower leg, just below the knee, to hold the stockings in place against the force of gravity. These elastic bands were called "garters". Later, I also saw in movies that people in medieval Europe wore such long stockings, but they used ribbons, and wore them outside (otherwise I wouldn't have seen them). I wonder if Japan's way of wearing them originated from them. But their way of wearing them must have been more convenient than Japan's. I used to have a headache every evening when I took off my socks to wash my feet. I had to reach into my cotton pants to pull out the garter from the long stockings hidden inside, and then I could take off the stockings and wash my feet. Another striking feature of long stockings was their patches. No matter how thick the cotton socks were, they couldn't withstand the wear and tear of the friction and pressure between the feet and shoes. So, after a while, the toes and heels of the socks would wear out, while the rest remained intact. To continue wearing the socks, they had to be mended. At that time, such a pair of long stockings cost 1.2 yuan, and buying them was a significant expense for a family, equivalent to buying a bicycle now. It wasn't something you could just buy on a whim; you had to plan for it. The tool corresponding to mending socks was the sock sole board, which also occupied a fairly important position in the household. The sock sole board might cost around 1 yuan each, but it could be reused and passed down from generation to generation like a family heirloom. The sock sole board had the following structure: a thin wooden board in the shape of a shoe sole, with a slightly thicker, 1-inch-high arc-shaped wooden board standing at the heel, firmly connected to it at a 90-degree angle. The standing wooden board was higher in the middle and lower on both sides, forming a semi-circle when spread out. There was also a thin wooden stick in the middle of the standing board, connected to the front end of the shoe sole-shaped wooden board, serving as a triangular support. With such a tool, mending socks became exceptionally easy. You could put the sock on it, just like putting socks on a person, with clear contours and a neat appearance. Socks are the most irregularly shaped item of clothing, and the space available for hand operation inside is small. Moreover, cotton is prone to deformation. If not handled properly, the whole thing could become crooked, wrinkled, and mismatched. However, even with the sock sole board, mending socks still required skill. You couldn't just cover the heel and toe of the sock with a piece of cloth. Instead, following the principle of making shoes, you had to separate the sock sole and the sock face for mending, and then sew them together. With the clearly defined edges of the sock sole board, mending socks was much more standardized than doing it directly on the foot. My mom told me that when she was little, before wearing new long stockings, she had to cut them open and sew on a complete sock sole, heel, and toe with new cloth, and then wear them. It was essentially a simple soft cloth shoe connected to the stockings. Now it's much better; you just mend where it's broken. Then suddenly, nylon stockings appeared, and everyone's interest shifted to them immediately. The advantages of nylon stockings are their elasticity and durability. Just these two points were enough to defeat the long stockings, which were cheap but troublesome and extremely inconvenient. It seemed that after that, long stockings disappeared all at once. Because people simply didn't need to wear such long socks. With the strong elasticity of nylon stockings, it was enough to tuck the bottom of the underwear into them. Although nylon stockings were expensive, costing more than 3 yuan a pair, their lifespan was equivalent to several pairs of long stockings. Moreover, they were easy to wash, dried quickly, and came in bright colors with various patterns and designs, unlike long stockings which only came in coffee, dark blue, and black. However, the drawbacks of nylon stockings soon became apparent: they were not breathable and caused sweaty feet. The most noticeable impact on public image was smelly feet, especially when wearing Liberation Shoes (simple green sneakers worn by the People's Liberation Army), which almost everyone wore at that time. Despite this, nylon stockings still dominated the market with their absolute advantages until now. But now, socks have combined these two seemingly incompatible old and new types of socks into a new fashion. This has balanced their respective advantages and disadvantages. Nowadays, socks made of a blend of cotton and nylon are elastic, not too sweaty, have a lifespan in between the two, and relatively reduce foot odor. However, with the modernization of home decoration, people take off their shoes as soon as they enter the door, exposing the hidden shortcomings of those with smelly feet and causing them embarrassment. But it's even more troublesome for the hosts. However, I have now come up with a way to prevent foot odor, which is to change socks every day (of course, also wash feet every day), so that the sweat is always fresh. Before the bacteria have time to decompose the proteins in it and make it smell bad, it is washed away. I have used this method to cure the smelly feet of my whole family and the friends of my son who come to my house. Ancient socks were made of cloth, similar to soft boots. Later, although foot-binding also used cloth, which was more absorbent and less sweaty than nylon, the long bandages could not be changed every day because if they were frequently loosened, the feet would be given a gap of freedom and would grow wildly. No matter how breathable the cloth is, if it is tightly attached to the feet for a long time, it will smell bad, which is a kind of corruption in position. Therefore, "the bandages of old women with bound feet - smelly and long". The short silk stockings of the past were a special case (there were no long silk stockings at that time). They had almost no elasticity and were not easy to slip off when worn on the feet. It was indeed very cool and smooth to wear them in hot weather; it seemed that they were also not easy to break. Nowadays, of course, all stockings are made of nylon, which is elastic and long. They are a kind of ornament for women to wear skirts and expose their legs. They can cover or hide body hair and not give people a hairy, masculine feeling; they can also conceal rough skin, unsatisfactory skin color, and some scars on the legs, giving the legs a delicate and smooth texture. Their colors can also match the color of the clothes and become part of the outfit. However, no matter how strong the elasticity of the long stockings is, they still cannot avoid slipping down when covering the inverted thighs without garters. Nylon also has a characteristic of rolling down automatically. This sometimes causes embarrassment for women wearing mini-skirts, as there is a great contrast between the part of the thigh covered by stockings and the part not covered. But this problem has been well solved, that is, the stockings are connected to the pants, called tights. The elasticity plays a crucial role at the waist, which is a concave part. I used to never care about socks, but modern home decoration has also affected me, giving my feet and shoes a chance to be separated for a long time, and letting me experience the pleasure of liberated feet. This pleasure gradually got out of hand, to the point where I didn't want anything on my feet at all, and just walked around barefoot, fully enjoying the intimacy between the feet and the floor. Although I also walked barefoot on the bluestone slabs in summer when I was little for the sake of coolness, it was after all just a child's temporary act. Generally, people are not allowed to have such opportunities. At this time, I began to think about the issue of socks. With such thinking, I would ask, why do people wear socks? The final conclusion is that people wear socks just like wearing briefs, to cover the dirty parts of the body and make it convenient to change and wash frequently. You can't wash shoes or outer clothes every day. I've also done experiments. Without wearing socks and just wearing shoes, the inside of the shoes indeed gets dirtier; and socks can also separate the feet from the shoes, preventing the feet from sticking to the shoes when putting on and taking off shoes; when the feet sweat, they prevent the feet from sticking to the shoes uncomfortably; and they can also protect the feet from friction with the shoes and blisters, acting as a layer of skin. Even so, I still don't like wearing socks. Because it's troublesome to put them on when going out and take them off when coming in. Once a person tastes the flavor of indulgence, he will never want to make progress again. So it's easy to go bad but hard to be good. In some unimportant occasions, such as going to the market to buy vegetables or sending parcels at the post office, I wear shoes barefoot, even in winter. My feet feel like they are on fire and have no sense of cold, so it's uncomfortable to wear socks. This is called "having heat" in traditional Chinese medicine. Although it is my own preference, I still feel a little uncomfortable when others look at me strangely, thinking that I am too unconventional and too out of the ordinary. But one day, I heard that the famous singer Andy Lau also wears shoes barefoot, and I felt very excited. It turns out that there is more than one person who dislikes socks, and he is a big figure. I immediately became confident and decided that in the future, no matter whether there are people doing what I don't like, I will not do it, regardless of other people's glances and not afraid of gossip. Maybe if I stick to it, it will become a trend in the future and others will follow my example. It's just like this, why think about something else? |
2025-01-01
2025-01-01
2025-01-01
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