NEW CONTEST!!
All right. Get a chunk of cheese, pull out your quirky humor, and start
thinking like Moe and Joe. Come up with a "Monkey Madness Quote of the Week." Send it to gobananas@sockmonkeymoejoe.com.
If we pick it, we'll add it to the home page, with your name emblazoned below it. Do you win any money? No. But you'll win something far more valuable-- a week of fame and glory on the site of the coolest monkeys on the web!
Sock Monkey Madness
Moe and Joe recently returned from a trip to Rockford, Illinois, for
Midway Museum's annual Sock Monkey Madness Festival. They went armed with their new book, "Moe & Joe's Sock Monkey Guide to Safety." They met
new friends and sold a lot of books! Below are some highlights from the trip.
Moe and Joe got to meet Moe was honored to speak
Nelson, a giant 7-foot sock with Nelson. Joe was just
monkey. They kept quiet intrigued with his ear hair.
about Nelson's apparent
endocrine problem.
| Moe and Joe got a check-up at the sock monkey hospital. Joe informed Dr. Morgan, in no uncertain terms, where she was NOT allowed to place that thermometer. |
One of Moe and Joe's flashier cousins, "Cheap Trick. |
| Here we have a little display that Joe calls, "Monkeys Under Glass." Moe tried to calculate the cubic footage of the case, to figure out when all the poor little monkeys would run out of oxygen. |
Moe and Joe didn't catch this guy's name, but he looked pretty important. |
Moe and Joe were thrilled to meet one of their heroes,
Spockmonkey. Here we catch them in a giddy moment
of repose. They asked Spockmonkey a question that
that had been burning in their minds for years--
couldn't tribbles have been used as earmuffs?
HISTORY OF THE SOCK MONKEY
In 1873, John Nelson developed a knitting machine that produced socks without a seam on the heel. The work socks were a hit. Nelson Knitting company (of Rockford, Illinois), found there were so many imitators of "Rockford" socks, that around 1932, they began putting a red heel on their socks to distinguish themselves from the copycats. Someone figured out
that the red heel made a great mouth on sock toys. Sock monkeys were born.
Around 1951 Nelson Knitting learned that sock monkeys were being made out of their socks. In 1955 they were awarded the patent and began including instructions for making sock monkeys with every pair of socks.
In 1992 Fox River bought out Nelson knitting and continues the tradition of the red-heel socks today. And that is very fortunate for us. Otherwise, Moe and Joe would not be in existence, and that would be a very dark world, indeed.
