Socks from Nanny

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Folding laundry the other day, I pulled two socks from the pile. They were a cozy pair Grandma Reiter had recently purchased for Mom. Mom never got a chance to wear them. I asked Grandma if she wanted to take them back to the store. They were still in their packaging. She asked if I wanted them.
No.
But I took them anyway.

(I finally put them on a few days ago. They were pretty comfy with the exception of… the toe seam. Ugh! Get this––a “double” toe seam. As if one isn’t bad enough? Basically, these socks are double layer but connected only at the cuff. Come on sock manufacturers! If the inner and outer socks are only joined at the cuff, each sock has free reign to do what it pleases. This really makes for mayhem on your toes.)

As I gazed down into these bulbous socks resting in my hand, I was reminded of a similar looking pair I had when I was little. They were "phony" double layer socks. The cuff made it look like there was one sock inside another, but it was just a façade. Probably better that way. They were white with a giant red cuff. Nanny, my great-grandma, Mom's grandma, had sent them to me for my birthday.

Funny thing is, I remember unwrapping the darn things. They came in a white, perfectly cubed cardboard box. I was probably about six years old. I remember thinking, why did Nanny get me a birthday present? She’s never gotten me one before. Oh, well. Nice gesture. I wrote Nanny a Thank You note and gave it to Mom to pass along.

A few weeks ago, I found the note in one of Mom’s nightstand drawers.

Huh? Did Mom not give the note to Nanny? Then it dawned on me: perhaps Nanny didn’t really get me those socks. Maybe Mom just wrote From Nannny to lend variety to the list of gift bearers. (She would do that. Give gifts to us on behalf of our dogs or our cat. It’s like saying, From Santa).

But now I’m wondering if Mom did give the note to Nanny and then found it in Nanny’s stuff after she died, and took it as a keepsake. Then again, maybe Nanny died before Mom could get it to her in the first place.

I guess I’ll never know. And I suppose it really doesn’t matter.