So lately I've been thinking about pioneers. And more specifically, how many pairs of socks and how much underwear did the pioneers have? I know in the little house on the prairie books the girls usually only had two to three dresses, an everyday dress and a Sunday dress, and maybe another one. But it never mentions how many socks they have, I'm assuming not very many.
Now to find out how I got to this point we have to follow my train of thought back a little further, all the way to my childhood in fact. When I was younger my parents used to drive me nuts by saying "Well that's the way the pioneers did it!" Everytime I whined about something they would connect it to the pioneers, it drove me insane. I'm not sure why it bugged me so much, except maybe that was the time when my parents were going through this really dumb phase. It was so strange, from the time I was 15 until I turned about 17 my parents were just idiots. Then they kind of grew out of it and now they actually know quite a bit. Really intriguing, but I think maybe everybody's parents go through that, it's just a part of life.
But I digress. In short, now in my life I am constantly making random connections to the pioneers and wondering how THEY did things.
The sock connection occurred because I have one pair of black shoes that I can wear to work, and I have four pairs of black socks I like to wear with them. I dislike doing laundry and so I don't do it until I run out of underwear (note: I have a lot more underwear than socks). I had worn my last pair of socks the previous day and now I faced a dilemma, wear my thin, black, gross, awkward ankle socks that make the shoes horribly uncomfortable? Or wear my previously worn socks?
Well how did the pioneers do it?
They obviously didn't have a great many socks. Clearly it was acceptable for them to wear socks repeatedly. And if it was acceptable then, why not now? So I wore my socks...for three consecutive days because I still have underwear left in my drawer and so have not done laundry. Perhaps others would just wear the socks without a fuss (or do their laundry before it retains the shape of the hamper when you dump it out). I prefer to be proudly justified in my dirty socks: This is how the pioneers did it.
