SOX/SOCKS

My Daddy was born just in time for the Depression. Summer of 1929.
Daddy's humor was like the waxing and waning of his ruling Moon. Expansive and depressive.
Told us one winter the only meat he had was the oppossum that tasted so badhe threw it down the outhouse hole.
His family dissolved during the Depression and was farmed out to work for whomever could feed him. He dreamed of what a family would be with dinners on the table and a dog. This dreaming made him a diligent parent. Parenting which meant a meal and a dog. We always had a dog.

He grew up when Jews were roasted in ovens and
Japs were melded to concrete walls.
What kind of world is this? He joined the Marines. He married at 18 and by the time he was 23 he had four children. He left the Marines. I am the oldest. I had 2 brothers and a sister. He fretted about how he could keep us, his children safe in a world where Jews were roasted in ovens and Japs were melded to concrete walls.

One day he called us together.
He had something to tell us.
"Don't sleep with your sox on".
My sister asked
"Why?"

"Because your feet will fall off."

I think this is because of Herb Smock's brother who was the tallest man in Indiana.
Tom Smock was so tall if he bent over to take off his sox he would get dizzy.
Tom Smock was so tall that he couldn't see, reach or feel his feet.
Tom Smock got a cut on his foot, the cut got infected and Tom didn't know
until the infection got to his private parts... then he went to the doctor.
Too late. Tom Smock wore his sox to bed now he's dead.

When I was 36 I returned to college. I walked miles to the bus which drove miles to the downtown campus... all the while
wearing a backpack holding books one of which costs more than taking
my three children out for lobster dinner. One day I was so tired I fell asleep with my sox on.
I woke up in a panic. I slept in my sox!
I took off my sox and my foot looked ok. My toes all wiggled.
I called my children together and told them:
"I slept in my sox. I have some unlearning to do."