Bring back the deck sock

Dressing for the summer and autumn in-between days.

This is the first entry in the history of The Old Times and, as of this moment, there are zero followers and nobody really even knows of the existence of this little publication. There’s a reason for that, of course. It’s the whole getting the ducks in a row thing. I’m trying to get a few things in order before the official “launch,” but I also felt strange just sending this thing off into the world totally naked and without anything for possible subscribers to check out. So, as a tribute to that weird time of year that is the start of September, when we’ve all basically told summer to kiss off but autumn doesn’t officially start for a few more weeks, when the weather will be a mess of cold and hot, rainy and humid, windy and stale, and we’re all hopeful for the actual turn of the season to begin, I present to you the Polo deck sock.

That particular ad for the finest sock Ralph Lauren ever made could be found in magazines in 1992, and had been showing up for about a year or so before all but disappearing by 1993. The socks were little light sweaters for your feet, they looked great when paired with shorts and a hooded sweatshirt. The canvas sneakers were a nice touch, but you could also mess around and pair them up with a pair of loafers or Birkenstocks if you wanted. The closest modern version I can think of might be the Anonymous Ism crew socks, but they don’t have the sort of worn-in, scrunchy feel the Polo socks had.

And that is sort of what The Old Times is going to be about: the timelessness of things and ideas. This post is meant to give this whole endeavor a worn-in, scrunchy feel before things get rolling. It would be odd to just have a blank page and then start asking people to sign up. So consider this a little something, an opportunity to kick things off and ask the couple of you who might read this if you’ve found a pair of socks like the Polo deck socks from the early-1990s that you like. If you’ve got tips, leave a comment.