Hiking Socks
I have been very fortunate throughout my life to have close girlfriends. Friendships that I made back in high school are still very strong today. There is something special about having friends that knew me when I was in junior high school and have gone through all the stages of my life. We lived together in college, were attendants in each other’s weddings and have celebrated the births of each other’s children. The four of us have laughed, cried and celebrated together for over thirty years.
While we were in college we made a pact that we would get together annually and go camping and hiking. These were activities that three of us enjoyed doing and the fourth was willing to give it a try. That first year we all laughed at her when we saw her luggage for the trip. The rest of us had tossed clothes into a duffle bag, but she had two pieces of luggage. After we set up camp we decided to go for a short hike. The three of us had hiking boots, but our friend had on sandals. She did not have any other foot gear along so I talked her into wearing hiking socks with her sandals. It looked strange, but at least her toes were protected. We told her we would go into town the next day and she could buy some boots and her own pair of hiking socks.
We decided to stay on an easy trail so she would not get hurt. As we were walking we ran into a group of guys that were camping about a mile from our site. We visited and flirted and invited them over to sit by the campfire that evening. One of the guys was teasing our friend about her hiking socks and sandals. He immediately dubbed her Socks. We went back to camp and made dinner then built the campfire. The guys came over and brought beer and visited with us for most of the night. After buying the new boots and hiking socks the next morning we headed out on a more difficult trail. That night we went into town and had dinner with the guys and went dancing at a local bar. We exchanged phone numbers and headed back home the next day. Our friend started getting calls from the guy that teased her about the hiking socks. Soon they were seeing each other most weekends. Within a year Socks and her guy were engaged to be married.
Our friend has always had a great deal of style and is very fashion conscious so we were all shocked when she wore hiking socks with her sandals under her wedding dress. At the reception she told the story about how she had met her new husband and how she won a hundred dollar bet from him for wearing the hiking socks with her wedding dress. Thirty years later they are still happily married.
Tags: Crafts and Hobbies
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