Sailors' Sock-Burning turns to Sock-Giving

by Rob Kasper,Baltimore Sun/Sail-World Cruising on 23 Mar 2010 In the spring tradition of the USA's sailing-mad Annapolis, a sock-burning practice which was initiated in the late 1980s by Bob Turner this year has a different, more gentle slant. Some sailors decided, instead of burning their socks, they would donate them to the poor and homeless.

As for the original tradition, it started when Turner, then the manager of the Annapolis Yacht Yard, had spent a long, difficult winter repairing other people's boats.

To welcome the first day of spring, and relieve some of his frustrations, Turner took off his socks, put them in a paint tray, doused them with lighter fluid and set them ablaze. Then he toasted the arrival of spring with a cold beverage.

Over the years, the sock-burning and toasting activities have spread from Annapolis to boatyards around the nation.

One sailing magazine has even printed step-by-step advice to novice burners. 'Have someone say a few words about spring or sailing ... or not, ' SpinSheet recommended 'One by one, drop your socks into the fire in a slow, orderly procession,' the magazine continued, 'until all of your ankles are cold. Then go home.'

This week encouraged by bright sun and 70-degree temperatures, Marylanders again shed socks Saturday to celebrate the first day of spring. Many still burned their socks at waterside gatherings, but the Downtown Sailing Center of Annapolis sailors put a twist on the tradition and donated pairs of new socks to the Helping Up Mission in East Baltimore. More than 700 pairs of new socks that would later be donated were tossed in one of the club's sail boats.

'We always need socks,' said Barry Burnett, director of the East Baltimore Street mission which cares for 400 men who are poor or homeless. Each time a new man enters the mission, he is given several pairs of socks, Burnett said. Some men from the mission were on hand at the Inner Harbor.

Allie Robinson, deputy director of youth outreach programs for the centre, said the club made the switch in sock rituals 'to do something to help people and celebrate spring at the same time.'

Alicia Tyrell, a sailing instructor at the Baltimore centre, had participated in sock-burnings in other years in Annapolis.
'There is something to be said for kicking off your socks,' she said. 'But this is less pyromaniacy, and a kinder, gentler spin on socks.'

Some sailors, however, were unhappy with the lack of the sock burning this year. Noting that Maryland was hit with record snowfall this winter, in the view of the sock-burners the bad weather occurred 'because not enough people burned their socks last spring.'