Pandora's Box

Today, I made the mistake of wearing white socks with the sparkly black trousers my sister gave me. I thought the socks were a mistake because of all of the controversy around Michael Jackson, and the eternal association there will always be between white socks with black pants and black shoes and his name.

I exclaimed during the car ride to the guitar performance, "Oh, no! I just realized that I left on my white socks when I put on the black pants and shoes!"

My mother responded matter-of-factly, "People might think you've got athlete's foot."

I started cracking up, thinking she must be losing her mind. "What???? What does athlete's foot have to do with white socks?" Still believing the mistake was solely a fashion faux-pas.

"Well, it used to be believed that the dye in colored socks caused athlete's foot. So if you had athlete's foot, you wore white socks.

"Yes," my mother continued, "That's where the name 'athletic sock' comes from." I had never heard of such a thing, and my mother frequently makes up stories; she's very creative. So I didn't know what to believe, but decided to google it. And sure enough, there are such suggestions about wearing white socks with athlete's foot, though I was not able to confirm her story on the origins of athletic socks.