How to Celebrate Lost Sock Memorial Day

It may seem like there is a specific day for almost everything, even the most insignificant things. But that’s not the case with Lost Sock Memorial Day.

If you have ever lost a sock, or gone to take a pair from your drawer, only to find odd ones remain, then this is the day for you.

How Many Socks Do We Lose In A Lifetime?

According to some studies, the average person will lose more than 1200 socks over the course of their lifetime. This is around 16 pairs a year worth a staggering $3200 dollars. That’s quite a lot of money if you think about it, and lends some weight to the fact there is an international day of commemoration.

Where Do They Go?

But where do these socks go?

That’s a very good question. People have come up with all kinds of ways to try and stop the problem, but yet, the socks still escape. They tie them together, put them in laundry bags, put one inside the other…the list goes on. Yet, still, every day, people all around the world are losing one half of a pair of socks.

There are several theories as to what happens to them. Firstly, when the drum is spinning at a very high speed, it’s believed some will slip between gaps or get sucked into the hose. These end up either clogging the system or disappearing with the rest of the wastewater. Others get lost at other stages of their life-cycle. For example, after being worn and discarded, they may end up under cupboards, wardrobes, or beds. They could fall out of the washing basket and be kidnapped by a pet, or be blown off the washing line, ending up in a neighbour’s garden.

So perplexing is this conundrum that some have hypothesized that they either sprout legs in the dead of night and make off to some unknown destination, or that there is some kind of elf that harvests them to make mischief.

The truth is, there is no definitive answer.

Lost Sock Memorial Day

Lost Sock Memorial Day is a day to remember all of those fallen foot soldiers, those who were lost in the line of duty. Those who never returned to their mate, and those whose remains will never be found. It is a day to celebrate the good innings they had, but also to remember those they left behind. The sole socks that will never fulfil their life’s purpose of being a pair, and are instead disposed of or relegated to the back of the sock drawer until a fateful day when they end up being thrown out.

Of course, there are some wild and daring folk among us that mix and match socks and are not deterred by those that don’t match. For the lost socks of the world, these people should be celebrated as lifelines to the partner they left behind. Lost Sock Memorial Day is a day to commemorate them as well.

The best way to celebrate Lost Sock Memorial Day is to throw out all the odd ones (formal ceremony optional), turn all the leftover ones into cleaning cloths, make sock puppets, or have a minute’s silence in their memory.