One sock, not even a pair of socks, has bonded two former Abington teachers in a way that the long-time friends can only truly understand, writes Roxanne Abramowitz for The Daily Courier.

Andrea Swan and Mimi Ford became best friends in college, but the story of the sock didn’t begin until when they were both living and teaching in Abington. That was 61 years ago.

At the time they were roommates and one day Swan brought home a man’s sock with red and gray diamonds that had gotten mixed in with her clothing.

“I can’t even tell you why I took it home,” she said.

Ever since that day, they have traded the sock back and forth in unique, humorous ways.

Today Swan lives in Connellsville in Lafayette County and Ford is in Florida, which makes exchanging the sock more difficult, but whenever they visit each other the sock comes along.

One of their best sock exchange stories was when Swan convinced the tour guide at the former Heinz Field in Pittsburgh to put the sock in the locker of the Steeler’s Ben Roethlisberger.

“There were about 12 of us in the group touring,” Swan explained. “We walked into where the lockers were, and I looked up and I saw the sock hanging on a hook in Ben’s locker.”

Then Ford saw it and they both started screaming. The rest of tour had thought they had lost their minds.

Read more about travels of this special sock in The Daily Courier.

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Friendship Day.