Burning of the Socks
The Annapolis Maritime Museum will host its seventh annual Sock Burning ceremony to herald the first day of spring on Wednesday, March 19 at 5:03 p.m.
The tradition dates back to the mid-1980s when Bob Turner, then manager of the Annapolis Yacht Yard, got tired of the winter blahs. He’d spent the whole season working on OPBs (other peoples’ boats), all the while collecting metal filings, bottom paint grindings, sawdust, fiberglas fibers, and globs of paint, caulk, resin and filler in his socks. On the first day of spring one year, he took off his socks, put them in a paint tray, doused them with lighter fluid, and toasted spring with a longneck beer while they burned.
Traditionally, die-hard boaters wear deck shoes sans socks from the Vernal Equinox until winter arrives.*
There are now sock burnings in other boating towns from Key West to Seattle.
The tradition has been commemorated in verse, which is recited every year:
Ode to the Sock Burners
By Jefferson Holland, Poet Laureate of Eastport, 1995
Them Eastport boys got an odd tradition
When the sun swings to its Equinoxical position,
They build a little fi re down along the docks,
They doff their shoes and they burn their winter socks.
Yes, they burn their socks at the Equinox;
You might think that’s peculiar, but I think it’s not,
See, they’re the same socks they put on last fall,
And they never took ‘em off to wash ‘em, not at all.
So they burn their socks at the Equinox
In a little ol’ fi re burning nice and hot.
Some think incineration is the only solution,
‘Cause washin’ ‘em contributes to the Chesapeake’s pollution.
Through the spring and the summer and into the fall,
They go around not wearin’ any socks at all,
Just stinky bare feet stuck in old deck shoes,
Whether out on the water or sippin’ on a brew.
So if you sail into the Harbor on the 21st of March,
And you smell a smell like Limburger sauteed with laundry starch,
You’ll know you’re downwind of the Eastport docks
Where they’re burning their socks for the Equinox.
Today, at the Maritime Museum, boaters recreate this rite of spring to commemorate all the unsung men and women in the marine industry who work so hard all winter so sailors and power boaters can play on their boats the rest of the year through. There is no entry fee for the event, but donations for the Museum capital campaign will be gratefully accepted.
*One exception to this rule: If on a given day the temperature drops below 30° Fahrenheit and the wind gusts over 17 knots, one can wimp out and don socks. This is known as the “Wimp-Chill Factor.”
Annapolis Maritime Museum |
PO Box 3088 |
Annapolis, MD 21403
410 295-0104
office@amaritime.org
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