Where do all the socks go???

When I was younger I thought my mother was senile.  We had a pile of socks with no "buddy" on top of our dryer.  I thought "Poor woman, she can't keep track of socks between the bathroom and the washing machine.  We're going to have to put her in a home."  Then I got married and started doing Hubby's laundry.  Turns out my mother isn't losing her marbles...er...socks; they are Gone!  WHERE DO THEY GO???  I am accumulating a pile of socks with no matches on top of my dryer.  How can I have this many socks with no matches??  Shouldn't you just have two, one of my socks, one of Hubby's?  There is one sock that has been on top of the washer since the first load of laundry that I did right after we got married.  Granted, we have only been married a couple of months but Surely in that time I would have found it's match!  Yet I refuse to throw it away because that will invariably bring it's buddy out of hiding and then I'll be regretting throwing the first one away.  Don't laugh at me, you know it's true.

So, I have established that this is a true phenomenon but I still don't have an answer to the most basic question of where these lost socks end up.  Is there a Neverland of Socks where instead of Lost Boys there are Lost Socks?  Are elves taking them?  If so, why aren't those elves tossing a load in the wash or at the very least leaving some cookies behind?  I think a dryer monster is eating them.  That is the only logical conclusion I can reach (logical has a broad definition in my happy little world).  Well the laundry is in the wash and I better go protect the socks or maybe I'll leave them to their fate and read a magazine instead.