I'm reading "Your socks are showing your age/Millennials have cutthroat defenses of their low-cut socks as Gen Z embraces crew socks" (WaPo)(free access link, in case you need pictures).
It's interesting, from my perspective, to watch millennials facing up to a younger generation that regards them as old, especially when the focus is something that — unlike the inevitable decline toward death — is completely trivial — here, the height of the tops of your socks.
My advice, from the advanced age of 73, is: Don't worry, millennials. It gets better. The struggle with aging is hardest where you are now, hitting 40. Put aside the question whether you are still young and don't waste your mental energy on any effort to appear young. Leave young people alone to distinguish their generation in their own way, including with hosiery choices. And wear exactly the socks you yourself like. Then the pain will recede and you will be free.
ADDED: Here's a picture Meade took of me a couple weeks ago. I never put it up because I thought the crew socks looked too clunky (and, look, I've got them scrunched down like it's the 80s):
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37 comments:
Do our Gen-Z grandkids wear crew socks with sandals? Please tell me they don’t!
I don’t wear socks anymore. I do live in a humid swamp though.
I also take my shoes off as much as possible.
Running a mile barefoot most days has done wonders for my feet. They don’t hurt nearly as much.
"My advice, from the advanced age of 73, is: Don't worry, millennials. It gets better. "
I've had completely the opposite experience. 40's was a breeze, compered to approaching 70. Only recently have I really felt like I'm aging.
My advice, from the advanced age of 73, is: …
Sounds like good advice.
After about June 10th each year, chiggers are active in the grass and cause awful pussy itching bites in your feet and ankles through regular socks. Say you scythe the lawn so spend a lot of time walking in it.
The only solution waterproof socks, with a membrane that breathes but won't let chiggers through. These are great amazon link. Buy a larger size. Very comfortable.
There exist longer waterproof socks but they're very hard to slip on and off after they get sweated up slightly.
Chiggers die below 42 degrees so mark that date to stop wearing them.
In Arizona most wait until winter to put socks on with our sandals.
Generation Y fashion sense for men is horrible in general.
Skin tight bright blue suits with pants stopping at the ankle, and orange shoes with white soles is ugly.
Achilles said...
...
Running a mile barefoot most days has done wonders for my feet. They don’t hurt nearly as much.
Trying to convert to barefoot caused my foot to start hurting in different places. And didn't go as smoothly as all the barefoot enthusiasts said it would.
Asked my orthopedist for his opinion. Turns out there's something called "fat atrophy". The pads of fat on your foot start to thin out. Which provide cushioning.
He thinks (and I have to say I agree with him) that people would have healthier feet altogether if we started as babies wearing barefoot type footwear. Not completely barefoot- there's too many things that can damage the foot. But with foot covers that allowed the foot to expand and grow without constraint. Meanwhile he suggest getting footwear that fits (difficult with 9EEE feet) with good cushioning.
Talking to other parents as my kids grew up, younger people seem to have bigger feet then us old people. I just turned 69. We attributed it to- most people today don't get a pair of leather shoes until they turn 18- if they get a set then.
One of the known physical problems in recruit training today is most recruits have never had hard soled shoes until they're issued them and have to wear them. And they develop shin splints from all the marching about they do.
>My advice, from the advanced age of 73, is: Don't worry, millennials. It gets better. The struggle with aging is hardest where you are now, hitting 40.<
Spoken like a rare - even healthy - mid-70s person who doesn't have aches and pains with every day living, whose old friends aren't dropping right and left, and who doesn't see the Grim Reaper walking up and down his street every so often - and who wouldn't trade for his 40s in a heartbeat.
KLPGA embraced the long tube socks long ago. Very short skirt very long socks
Crew socks don't look as good with shorts.
@Ice Nine
I was going to add to my advice: Stop worrying about socks and do what you can to protect your health. It's a fight against death. You will lose in the end, but push that end back... and not just the end but the point where a longer life isn't even better.
If you are a "mid-70s person" with "aches and pains," and you look back to when you were 40, what do you wish that younger self of yours had done differently? Not everything is your fault, but do what you can to build and maintain your health and start as early as possible.
You know what you need to do: Don't smoke. Don't drink or use drugs. Get exercise. Eliminate stress. Sleep as much as you can. Eat entirely healthful foods. Build muscle. Practice balance so you never fall. Drive/walk/bike/etc. with grace and care. Don't live with an abuser. So many things, obvious things.
>Ann Althouse said...
If you are a "mid-70s person" with "aches and pains," and you look back to when you were 40, what do you wish that younger self of yours had done differently? Not everything is your fault, but do what you can to build and maintain your health and start as early as possible.
You know what you need to do: Don't smoke. Don't drink or use drugs. Get exercise. Eliminate stress. Sleep as much as you can. Eat entirely healthful foods. Build muscle. Practice balance so you never fall. Drive/walk/bike/etc. with grace and care. Don't live with an abuser. So many things, obvious things.<
To answer your question, I would have done nothing different at age 40. I must say that I can't imagine a more well-lived middle age and beyond (a mix of planning...and some luck, I suppose).
As to your sage admonitions (not sarc), I in fact happen to have followed every one of them. I still experience the three things I mentioned...and I know very few septuagenarians who don't.
Freedom is really no socks at all. And no shoes when appropriate. I’m generally crew height socks (dress or athletic) when I have to wear them but mostly just slip on some shoes without any sock or just go barefoot.
I’m 58 and as a kid, who the heck ever even wore shoes except to school or church? Those formative years of grass burrs/stickers, stepping on ground hornets accidentally, stubbed toes, tiny glass shards, splinters and the like all built up some pretty tough soles so nice to take advantage of as I age.
Plus, and this is the real bonus: My wife no longer asks me to walk our dog after getting some neighbors’ comments about me out on the asphalt or lake parkland by my house in shorts and my cowboy hat but sans shoes.
No socks except in required business settings and even then only at an upper tiered one. Bass Weejun penny loafers or deck shoes and no socks. It's a South East coastal thing since the 1950's. And it all started with shaggin' in Myrtle Beach...
I went to ankle socks almost 100% of the time after I retired, but then I also wear shorts pretty much all the time unless I am required to be more formal- then, and only then, do I go back executive socks.
I wear white socks with sandals . . . or I wear nothing at all.
How can sock height actually seem interesting or meaningful to ANYONE?
Plantar fasciitis made Croks something I liked, after having abjured them for years. Wearing them with crew socks keeps my feet from becoming gooey on hot days. Live and learn. The alternative is painful gooey feet.
My feet get sweaty, dirty and stinky, and slip inside my sneakers without socks. I like barefoot but there's glass and small, sharp stones in the street at random intervals (we have no sidewalks). Sandals fix that but you can't wear socks of any kind with them - Oh, God, no. When I see socks and sandals, I just look away quickly and pretend I didn't notice. Though there's this kind of rim socks that just cover the bottom of your feet to keep them from getting nasty; rim socks are OK with sandals. Thing is, I never realized that there was this generational aspect to my ideas about sock types and about putting socks on (or not). I thought I was following the natural law.
PS. In winter for outside I wear long, heavy socks and, still, my sneakers thus avoiding boots - heavy, slippery, clunky. I wonder what all these varied generations do about boots - maybe a winter investigation.
Just had a similar discussion this morning with my wife. I told her I was tired of my low-cuts slipping into my running shoes when doing something relatively athletic. I was already thinking of getting a lightweight mid-ankle sock. Can't go full crew down here. Too hot.
Unless I'm doing something athletic that requires me getting out of my ON Clouds, there are no socks in my life.
I wear crew socks but they hurt my calves,cut off the blood circulation, so I take some scissors and make one cut at the top of the sock which relieves the pressure. Socks look bad but I almost always wear long pants because skin cancer. In fact I had a hunk of skin cut out of my right calf several years ago. On the rare occasion when I expose my beautimous legs I wear ankle socks.
“Eat entirely healthful foods. Build muscle”
I’ve read you can’t build muscle after the age of 65, you can only maintain it. Is that not true? I’m over 70, I eat and drink what I like but I’m not a glutton and I’m in pretty good heath. I don’t walk as much as I used to because it makes my knee hurt. I don’t want to be cut anymore so no knee replacement until absolutely necessary.
I can't keep track (nor do I wish to make the effort) of which 'generation' is which.
Gordon Ramsey has a cooking show now pitting the generations against one another in teams.
I just root for the old guys or the hot babes...
"I have reached an age where if someone tells me to wear socks, I don't have to"
Albert Einstein
"Sat up in Harlem, at a table for two..
There was three of us there: Me, yo' big feets, and you"
I'm in boots most of the time, so..... But I do have half-sies that I use from time to time.
Now: Chiggers and ticks: If you want to avoid these, start taking garlic in March. 1000 mg, one a day, odor-controlled, just like a little Vitamin E gel cap. No garlicky side effects, smell or taste. Easy to swallow and dirt cheap at Walmart or anywhere else. I didn't think it would work at first, but on the basis of someone else's experience, I tried it - I'm a believer. And I'm in the woods and tall grass almost every day. No chiggers.
The alternative is painful gooey feet.
One of my earliest memories is synthetic socks making the skin between my toes red and raw. In the 70s, it was impossible to find colored cotton socks, so I wore two pair to prep school to avoid derisive comments. I still have to travel with an all cotton sheet and pillowcase, or I can't sleep, but my feet and hands don't blister quite as easily as they once did.
There are a lot of things you read that aren't true. It helps to have a good base metabolism from your younger days, but you can build muscle after age 65. 3-4 months ago I got serious about losing weight and getting into better shape. I turned 69 on Flag Day. I literally started out with 1 minute on the treadmill at 3% grade and 3.2 MPH. I have a heart monitor and a phone app for it. Day 30 of exercising I was still at the same point. Experience from the past- if I increase effort too fast, I get injured forcing me to stop or make it worse. I can now do 30 minutes at 3.5 mph and 7.5% grade. My heart curve, along with highest and average beats per minute, is exactly the same. The heart is a muscle, a very important one. Not visible, but it's gotten stronger. I've also lost 14 pounds to date.
My watch measures HRV. Even after reading about it I'm still not entirely sure what it is. Unbalanced is bad and higher is better. Haven't been unbalanced in months now. From just treadmill work. And the overnight value has been rising, slowly. The highest 5 minute average has gone up a lot.
“You know what you need to do: Don't smoke. Don't drink or use drugs. Get exercise. Eliminate stress. Sleep as much as you can. Eat entirely healthful foods. Build muscle. Practice balance so you never fall. Drive/walk/bike/etc. with grace and care. Don't live with an abuser. So many things, obvious things.”
Obvious, but ignored. When I volunteered, most of our clients had ignored one or more of your admonitions, with debilitating effect. Three more suggestions for elderly independent living-
Don’t alienate your children or siblings with your bullshit.
Your possessions should be in a reasonable, hygienic, and manageable proportion to your living space.
That goes quintuple for pets.
Gospace said...
Achilles said...
...
Running a mile barefoot most days has done wonders for my feet. They don’t hurt nearly as much.
Trying to convert to barefoot caused my foot to start hurting in different places. And didn't go as smoothly as all the barefoot enthusiasts said it would.
It took several months. I started with the stop sign and back about 150 meters. Worked up to a mile and doing sprints. My feet were sore.
I still have to hold back a little sprinting on hot pavement.
My feet don't get sore even in my soccer shoes now. It is really nice.
I still can't run on gravel though. I would have to put a lot of time in on that I think.
“I grow old...I grow old...I shall wear the tube socks for my weejuns rolled."
If you are concerned about the length of your socks you are fortunate.
I pitied myself because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no socks.
I pitied myself because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no socks.
In my limited experience, people who don't wear sock with their shoes wind up with stinky feet and smelly shoes of all types. Women are more likely to not wear socks and with the demise of pantyhose, they should take care that they don't have offensive foot odor. YMMV, but when I see a woman, say, in her 30s, and her heels and the edges of her feet are hard and calloused, it makes me SMH. No amount of pedicure can make them attractive. That comes from going barefoot or wearing unforgiving shoes.
The only thing worse, which I seldom see in the younger generation, is women with hammertoes, crossover toes, and bunions. Not as bad as binding the feet, but I've only see photos of that.
If you want to run barefoot but don't want to beat the crap out of your feet, maybe you should try the foot gloves
In the winter, I wear long socks and long pants. Because it is cold outside, and it make sense. In the summer, I wear shorts and what they used to call quarter socks usually, because it is hot outside and I like to walk, and quarter socks are better than footies for walking. Wear what makes sense, and forget what other people want to do? Seems to be the only sensible approach.
I came of age as crew socks gave way to knee/tube socks for men. Used to be de rigueur for athletes (pro or otherwise) to wear knee socks. Then they gradually started coming down, until most either went sockless or the small hidden ones (which I wear to the gym and elsewhere).
For reference at ca. 2:25. (Rocky III).
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