The Burning of the Socks

Set your piggies free at The Burning of the Socks celebration of Spring on Sunday, March 17, from 4 – 7 p.m., on the waterfront at 729 Front Street in Georgetown.

The event is a “fun”draiser for the museum, and you will be treated to a pig pickin’ with all the fixins, libations, music by local band Henry’s Attic, and door prizes. Ed Piotrowski, Chief Meteorlologist for WPDE, will be our Master of Ceremonies. Bob Turner, the original sock burner from Annapolis, MD, will be our guest of honor.

The cost is $30 each for members and $35 for non-(but soon to be) members. 

But what’s The Burning of the Socks all about? It’s become a coastal tradition, dating back to the mid-1980’s, starting in Annapolis. There, Bob Turner, who managed a boatyard, got tired of the winter blahs. While working on boats all winter, his socks collected sawdust, bottom paint, caulk, fiberglass resins, and other boat yard leavings. In other words, his socks would stand up when he took them off at night. One year, on the first day of Spring, he took off his socks, put them in a paint tray, sprinkled on some lighter fluid, lit them, and then had a beer to celebrate. The tradition began. There are now sock burnings in other boating towns across the country.

To commemorate the tradition, “Ode to the Sock Burners” was composed by Jefferson Holland of Annapolis in 1995. The ode is read every year when the socks are lit at coastal parties. Here is our Georgetown version:

Them Georgetown boys got an odd tradition


When the sun sinks to its Equinox position.


They build a little fire down along the docks,


They doff their shoes, and they burn their winter socks.

Yes, they burn their socks at the Equinox.


You might think that’s peculiar, but I think it’s not.


See, they’re the same socks they put on last fall, 


And never took ‘em off to wash ‘em, not at all…

So, they burn their socks at the Equinox


In a little ol’ fire burning nice and hot.


Some think incineration is the only solution,


‘Cause washin’ ‘em contributes to Sampit pollution.

Through the spring and the summer and into the fall,


They go around not wearin’ any socks at all,


Just stinky bare feet stuck in old deck shoes,


Whether out on the water or sippin’ a brew.

So if you sail into the Harbor on the 17th of March,


And you smell Limburger sautéed with laundry starch,


You’ll know you’re downwind of the Georgetown docks,
Where they’re burning their socks for the Equinox.

So gather up your crusty ol’ winter socks, come to the South Carolina Maritime Museum on Sunday, March 17, and set your piggies free. 

Tickets can be purchased at the SC Maritime Museum. For any questions call 843-520-0111.