Darn It!

Darn it is an expression I often use when things don't go well.  Either that or dang it.  It is much nicer than alternative expressions.  I was thinking of the other definition of darn, though, after looking at a pair of my 'work' socks on the counter.

darn¹

därn/

verb

1. 1.

   mend (knitted material or a hole in this) by weaving yarn across the hole with a needle.

   "I don't expect you to darn my socks"

   synonyms:

   mend, repair, reinforce;

These socks have seen their better days

You might notice that these socks have the little Polo label on them.  Ralph Lauren, in designing these socks, probably didn't envision them becoming a 'work' sock, but that's what they've become. My mom bought these socks for me in the summer of 1984 for me to wear in college.  I had purple ones, gold ones, red ones and the green ones.  The green was once much more bright and had A LOT LESS wear on them! Unbelievable that a pair of socks has lasted for 30 years.

But now, it is time to retire the last pair of Polo socks I'll probably ever own.  I think this pair is well past the point at which 'darning' them would help!  Does anyone darn socks anymore?  In today's disposable culture, probably not.

Where's my darning needle?

We have a progression for clothing at our house.  Once clothes are too worn or faded or unfashionable to be worn in public, they become 'work clothes' and move from the clothes hanger to the work clothes stack in my closet.  The animals don't care that your clothes are stained or have holes in them or are faded.  Once they've become too atrocious looking to even wear in front of the animals (and that's pretty bad), they move to the 'rag drawer.'

We use a lot of rags for all sorts of cleaning jobs and have a drawer in our utility room that has plenty of old socks and cut up T shirts in their final stage of usefulness.  These green Polo socks, in their final installment of their 30 year existence, will be a rag to clean the tires when washing the car or as a rag to clean up after changing the oil.

Holy Socks

If these socks could talk, they'd have a few stories to tell about college life 30 years ago all the way to milking cows and tromping through mud and cow poop and now wiping used 10W30 motor oil from around the bottom of the engine block where the new Fram oil filter is about to be installed.  Quite a fall from grace, I might say, darn it!