EDitorial ± 5-Jan-2004

Sock Thing

Chances are that if you crossed the threshold of Broom Acres over the holiday period, you'll want to thank (or curse) a lady known only as Jenny from Scotland. For it was Jenny, you see, who emailed the BBC website shortly before Christmas with her suggestion for "an amusement for two teams".

Here's Jenny's official description of The Sock Game, and please note that definite article:

Each team member gives themselves a number.

Two large, long socks are produced which have been filled with numerous items, both socks containing the exact same items.

Both teams take a sock. A caller is appointed who then calls out the name of one of the items in the sock, and a number which corresponds to a team member.

The sock is passed cautiously down to the correct team members and each team battles it out to see who can retrieve the item from the sock first by putting their hand down and simply feeling for the item.

And so it came to pass that I found myself in the town centre on Christmas Eve buying one or two last minute items plus, from a handy street seller outside HMV, a pair of over-the-knee Tigger socks. Easy, tiger!

Behold the Tigger sock and a selection of objects still to find their original homes

I thought it was a great game, and so did all three of the kids, bless 'em. So much so that roped in to participate on various days were friends, neighbours, both sets of grandparents and other assorted relatives, in fact anyone unwise enough to plonk themselves down the sofa for five minutes.

That description casually mentions filling both socks with "numerous items". We generally played with 20 objects in each sock, including:

  • cork
  • 50p piece
  • plastic syringe
  • Magitape roll
  • comb
  • Teletubby from the bath
  • plastic pig (farm animal, not a Reliant)
  • hairband
  • Lypsyl
  • balancing monkey
  • watch
  • medicine spoon
  • wooden wheel
  • coin from Cyprus
  • credit card
  • large paper clip
  • Love Heart
  • Hot Wheels car
  • Nemo plastic fish
  • wooden cylinder
  • piece of Lego
  • AA battery
  • Maglite
  • magnetic letter
  • top from a felt tip pen
  • 20p piece
  • expensive shiny pebble
  • string
  • teaspoon
  • credit card
  • and a chocolate coin, which I couldn't recommend

Two operative words: (1) cheap, and (2) cheerful. The three-year-old was proud as mulled wine when he won, sometimes beating the odd adult, and gutted when he lost. That's my boy.

Be seeing you!

Ed