Dr. Sock Monkey makes his way to the Sock Monkey Museum
by Joan Perry | Contributing Writer
I check Atlas Obscura for unusual sights before any travel. My love language is, “Did you want me to stop so you can get a picture?”
South Carolina has generously served up roadside wonders on country roads, keeping photographers of the unusual busy. Many are gone, living on as fond memories in our albums – the UFO Welcome Station in Bowman, Elloree’s Teapot Museum, the Muffler Man creation in Holly Hill, and the giant Monkey statue holding a camera in Cross. The Topiary Garden is still in Bishopville, and I swear by the water from the Blackville Healing Springs in Blackville. The Edisto Mystery Tree and Hanging Mattress Swing require stops, as does the giant head decorated seasonally underneath Poet Billy Baldwin’s home in McClellanville.
Wouldn’t it be fun to staff an oddball museum? My daughter made sure I visited Velveteria: The Museum of Velvet Art in Portland, OR before it closed. I marvelled at Petra’s Stone Collection in Iceland. A subway and streetcar ride took me to the house with toys and dolls stuck all over it in Toronto. Locally I checked out the vintage torture instruments at the Macaulay Museum of Dental History on Ashley Avenue, and convinced a friend to drive to the Button King’s Museum in Bishopville to see his button covered piano, casket and hearse.
After Frankie Howard Hesse, former Emergency Department nurse manager, posted pictures of a visit to the Sock Monkey Museum in Long Grove, Illinois, I finally had something to contribute. The museum was advertised as, “Not your Grandparent’s Museum, but maybe your Grandparent’s socks!”
When I worked in healthcare, we supported non-profit organizations promoting health, and joined the rest of the Lowcountry at the annual American Heart Walk. Each year we tried to top ourselves with creative ideas to capture interest and raise funds. One year our theme was, “Don’t Monkey Around With Heart Disease.”
I sewed sock monkeys to serve as mascots, and Loretta Kennedy, a West Ashley wizard with a sewing machine and hospital volunteer, made outfits, dressing them in perfect copies of physician’s scrubs and a nurse’s uniforms. We thought we were very clever, and it was a successful campaign, breaking our records for fundraising at Roper St. Francis Healthcare that year.
Dr. Sock Monkey had settled on my guest bed for years and was ready to consider a retirement home. I packed him up with a note and shipped him to Long Grove, IL, home of the Sock Monkey Museum. I was happy to see that he reached his destination and I was even more thrilled to receive this fun note:
Good morning Joan,
Thank you SO MUCH for sending Dr. Sock Monkey to our Museum!
What a wonderful surprise to get your package to find this sweet sock monkey and learn of his amazing history. He has done great things. I am happy to know he was part of the campaign to raise money for such an important cause.
We have shared him and his story with visitors and they are impressed and happy to know him.
Do you know who made him? I’d love to learn more about him. Was he made specifically for the fundraiser? I am guessing he is from South Carolina.
It is an honor to receive sock monkeys as donations. They are special and can become good friends, even family, so thank you for your generosity. We will take good care of him and rest assured, he is in good company here with so many sock monkey friends. We love him and our visitors are enjoying seeing him and learning more about him.
Here is something fun to share. About two years ago we were awarded the Guinness World Record for the largest number of sock monkeys in the world. The count was 2,098. Two years later and our count (due to my purchases, gifts and donations) has been 2299 for a while. This sock monkey made it 2300! Now we are letting people know we have 2300 vintage sock monkeys in our Guinness World Record and this guy brought us up to that number.
Thank you Joan, I really appreciate your thoughtfulness in sending him to us, and hope you come to visit all of us someday.
— Arlene
For more information visit: sockmonkeymuseum.com, or if you are on the road, stop by the Sock Museum in Illinois, and share fond West Ashley greetings with Dr. Sock. Stay healthy my friends, and wave at me as I wander. Send ideas for upcoming columns to: westashleywanderer@gmail.com.
