For the five years I have been coming and going from Vermont I have always wanted to go to the Cabot Sock Sale and every year I have missed it, except this year. The Cabot Sock Sale is legendary in Vermont for a couple of reasons.
1.) Vermonters love local companies. Cabot Hosiery Mill is a third generation family business.
2.) Darn tough socks are amazing. Whether you are skiing, hiking or looking for casual wear, darn tough socks are, said again, amazing.
3.) Who doesn’t love to buy socks?!
4.) Who doesn’t love a good sale, especially on socks?!
5.) It only happens once a year.
The sock sale in 2018 is Nov 10+11 and Nove 17+18th
8:30 am- 4:30 pm
Bring your own bags to cut down on plastic bags!
Get your socks on!
We all set our alarms to wake up early to make the drive for the 8:30 am opening of the sale. We were still ten minutes late and this is what the parking looked like at 8:40 am.
After we walked up the hill through the traffic…
…this is where we found ourselves in the line.
We had no idea the line would be this long.
But we were prepared. Agnes chose to go with the hands free shopping method. She had keys attached to one pocket and check book in the other. No need for a purse giving her maximum flexibility for digging through the piles of socks.
Time moved quickly standing in line as there was a lot of activity to both observe and listen to. We would hear a loud cheering and look up to see customers emerge the proud owners of giant bags of socks. At one point we watched a young teenage boy try to carry one of these bags down a grassy hill. Let’s just say momentum won and the boy and bag went sliding down the hill.
When we didn’t hear cheering we heard lots of ‘Thank you’s’ in front of us as a few employees walked up and down the line offering treats. The lady said, ‘Mr Cabot wants to keep everyone happy’ while we watched the minutes tick by standing in line to buy socks.
First we had really good chocolate chip cookies.
Then clementine oranges.
Rounded out with what were also really good banana nut muffins.
Talk about a gesture of hospitality. Thank you Mr. Cabot!
At one point a limo pulled up and had to complete a twelve point turn around. We came up with a lot of stories about who could have been in there as security watched on from the hill top.
We counted how many people we knew. Agnes reported back to us that her friend got her early to ensure she could get good socks for her kids.
As the line moved forward we came into view of this puppy named Zoe who had just been gifted a brand new sock from her owner.
She was tossing this sock up and down and playing tug-o-war. It was the cutest way to be entertained while standing in line.
As we neared the entrance we couldn’t resist the smell of hot apple cider any longer and Chris, Agnes and Kate went to check the bake sale out.
Us enjoying our apple cider.
Talk about knowing your audience! The bake sale was run by Parent Teachers Organization and they knew the demograph of people coming to the sock sale seeing seeing so many of us are Park Rangers.
And they nailed it! They were also selling carrots and dip and it looked so cute. They had so many delicious home baked good and healthy snacks too. This group had some of the best, healthy, creative and homemade offerings I have ever seen from a bake sale.
As we neared our turn to enter we took one last look over the scene. The line grew beyond what we could see.
Santa held the door for us…
…and we were in. I asked an employee and unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures inside the factory.
After an hour of waiting in line and an hour of running from table to table inside, we too emerged cheering triumphant with our bags of socks.
The parking only got thicker and we were so glad we parked at the bottom giving ourselves an easy get out.
As we are just about to head off to South America, we stayed in Vermont another whole day to ensure we could go to the Cabot Sock Sale. At the start of the season I talked about ‘Being Vermont’ and I couldn’t think of a better way to end this stint in ‘
Vermont‘.
In a week we are going to head off to Peru and now we are wearing some of the best socks in the world.
Bring on the mountains, our feet can’t wait, they will be wearing ‘Darn Tough Socks’.
The sock sale in 2018 is Nov 10+11 and Nov 17+18th
8:30 am- 4:30 pm
Bring your own bags to cut down on plastic bags!
Get your socks on!
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Who would have thought a sock sale to be such an event! You’ll have happy feet in Peru. Zoe looks more like a ‘sock puppet’ than a dog.
I didn’t realize the sock sale was such an event either! Nothing like good socks to bring outdoorsy Vermonters together. We all had such a good time hanging out together and laughing in line the time flew by.
This makes me hungry!! So many shots of eating and having a good time. Tasty sock dog!
It was a good and tasty time. That puppy was so cute. I was so glad the man said I could photo her playing.
Holy Sock! Apparently socks are a big deal an Vermont! Looks like a really fun day!
Well, let’s clarify, Darn Tough socks are a big deal in Vermont. 😉 The whole day was a pleasant surprise and now we are ready for South America.