Improvisation of Sports Socks

Had a bit of adventure with my eight year old daughter on the way to the field hockey tournament last weekend. If you know me, you know that I like my kids to be responsible for packing their own bags. And it usually works fine, except when I intervene and wash things in between practices or games. Anyway, my daughter packed her field hockey bag the night before and we headed out early in the morning. Johnstown is a one hour ride from Saratoga with not much in between but open road and a few little towns. We left at 7:30 in the morning for an 8:30 arrival. It was early so I told my daughter that she didn't have to get dressed for field hockey before we left. We were on time and all was well until 30 min into the ride, when I asked my daughter to get her things on, she said "um, mom, where are my socks?" My face must have turned from happy to disbelief. I left them in the dryer! My mind went into overdrive. Do we have extra socks in the car? No. Can my small socks fit over her big shinguards? No. Does the coach have soft shin guards she can borrow so we don't need socks? Maybe. We stopped at Stewart's. No socks. Every store we passed (very few) was closed (before 8am in the morning). No Target. Where to go? We were really in the middle of nowhere. Just then we saw a Dollar General and it was open (it had just opened at 8am!!). My daughter screamed at me to pull into the parking lot. We were laughing, mostly with disbelief that there still might be hope! I looked at my GPS and told my daughter that we had exactly three minutes (we were already running behind our schedule to arrive on time). She jumped out of the car ahead of me, and ran into the store. The woman behind the counter told me that she thought she saw a little girl run by. With a child in my arms (I had my toddler with me too), we yelled out my daughter’s name and found her in the many aisles of this rather large dollar store. Sensing our urgency, the woman behind the counter walked us across the store to the sock section, and, just like that, we found $5 knee high sports socks that my daughter absolutely loved! In fact, she liked them better than the $10 socks from Dick’s that we had accidently left at home. My daughter was ecstatic! I breathed a sigh of relief! The woman working at the checkout was pleased we had found what we were so desperate to get! We paid, got back in the car, and arrived just in time for the tournament to start. My daughter even scored two goals in her new socks. What an adventure. We learned our lesson about double checking the sports bag before leaving home (I always think we should have a checklist in each sports bag)…but knowing my daughter, she might leave something home next time, just knowing that she might score some cool new gear if it happens again! 

Visit us at www.besporthappy.com for more info on the 35 sports available for kids in Saratoga ages 3-13. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/besporthappy or join our Be Sport Happy Saratoga Equipment Exchange group on Facebook and exchange used sports equipment with other Saratoga families: www.facebook.com/groups/besporthappy. Also find us at www.healtheconcessions.com and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/healtheconcessions.