Encouraged by bright sun and 70-degree temperatures, Marylanders shed socks Saturday to celebrate the first day of spring.

In keeping with a 30-year tradition, sailors at the Eastport Yacht Club in Annapolis burned their socks at a waterside gathering.

Meanwhile at the docks of the Downtown Sailing Center in the Inner Harbor, sailors put a twist on the tradition and donated pairs of new socks to the Helping Up Mission in East Baltimore. More than 700 pairs of new socks that would later be donated were tossed in one of the club's sail boats.

According to Annapolis lore, the sock-burning practice was initiated in the late 1980s by Bob Turner, then the manager of the Annapolis Yacht Yard. In a telephone conversation Friday, Hecklinger recounted the oft-told story of the origin of the ritual.

To welcome the first day of spring, and relieve some of his frustrations, Turner took off his socks, put them in a paint tray, doused them with lighter fluid and set them ablaze. He toasted the arrival of spring with a cold beverage.