A Matter of A Pair of Socks

“Can I have a pair of socks for the New Year? This New Year can I get a pair of socks?” A week or two before the Chinese New Year, I would be asking my mother and grandmother the same question many times, hoping one of them would finally say yes.

I wanted a pair of socks to wear during the Chinese New Year but much more than that I wanted a pair of socks to wear to school. Not all the students wore socks and I wanted to be one of those who did.

It was on the eve of the Chinese New Year that Grandmother finally took me to the shop-that-sold-everything in my little kampong and bought me one pair of very new and very white socks. I was so happy. For the rest of the year, I wore this one pair of socks to school. Of course with time, they became yellowish, then brownish and then the elastic also gave way. But still I wore them to school – with rubber bands to hold them up!

And so every Chinese New Year, I would beg my mother and grandmother for one new pair of socks. But when I started secondary school, I did not ask for socks anymore – because it was compulsory to wear socks to school, my mother bought a pair for me when the school year started.

Now forty something years later, I have so many pairs of socks because I am manufacturer. If I were to wear and throw away a new pair each day (of course I won't) I would still have plenty left. As I put on one pair, I remember how precious my very first pair of socks was.