THE OTHER DAY, the Truly Unpleasant Mrs. Johnston noticed I was wearing one black sock and one dark blue sock. Of course she pointed this out to me.

"I know," I said with a hearty laugh. "I have a pair just like it in my dresser drawer!"

I must digress a bit here. When we first started dating in the last century, such a witty comment would have brought peals of merry laughter from Mrs. Johnston as she marveled at her luck in dating such a quick wit. Even after we had been married for a decade or so, my witty observations on life would have brought a warm chuckle and a wifely shake of her head as if to say, "He's an idiot, but he's my idiot."

It was maybe 15 years into the marriage that the loving, warm chuckle erupting from the Truly Unpleasant Mrs. Johnston turned from warm appreciation of a sly observation of life to a sound one might expect to hear from Queen Victoria when she was told an off-color joke.

Although I never heard Mrs. Johnston utter, "We are not amused" after I made some amusing remark, her amusement level did take a dip. Especially when it came to me. It was like someone turned off the laugh track and I was doing racy jokes in front of Billy Graham.

I'm through digressing now, but I think you get the picture. So when I told Mrs. Johnston that I had another pair of blue and black socks in the dresser drawer just like I had on my feet, I didn't expect her to double over in laughter. But I did find it an amusing comment and quite witty for so early in the morning. But instead of putting her hands on her hips and rolling her eyeballs toward heaven to ask for an angel to come down and smite me, Mrs. Johnston just nodded her head and went about her business. After all, she raised a brood of children and it takes a lot to get a rise out of her, especially when it comes to clothing.

Mrs. Johnston has seen her children walk out of the house, looking like they were running off to join the circus and were bringing their own costumes. I did see her get upset once when a son went to a formal school dance in a tux and black and white tennis shoes. But most of the time, Mrs. Johnston takes life as it comes to her, funny clothing and all.

So having a husband wear one blue sock and one black sock didn't surprise her much. I was wearing dark pants so it wouldn't be noticed as long as I didn't sit down and cross my leg over my knee, exposing the wrong-colored socks and a few inches of pasty white skin.

I did learn something that day. You may not notice you have one black sock and one blue sock on when you get dressed in the morning. But when someone points it out to you, that is all you can think about all day.

Oh yeah, I noticed something else. The Truly Unpleasant Mrs. Johnston is beginning to look like Queen Victoria.

Steve Johnston is a retired Seattle Times reporter. Paul Schmid is a Times staff artist.