Totsie Comfort

I gave up anklets / socks ever since I graduated from high school. During my teen years I religiously wore a pair of Weejun loafers with white cotton socks, never rolled, always pulled higher than my ankle. I didn't own any sneakers or casual shoes. I had a pair of brown Weejuns and one pair of black heels. Shoes were meant to be utilitarian in my household.

During my 20's I made up for my shoe dearth with a vengeance. I owned over 300 pairs of shoes, usually high end (but not like today's shoes which cost $300 and up) and I had a rainbow of colors. This time around I went in for the "dress" shoe, mostly lower heels and flats, because I seem to have always had really bad feet.

During the 1990's my feet got really bad. Plantar's fasciitis took a deadly toll, as well as ingrown toe nails. Eventually I took to wearing ugly tie-on shoes -- even more pricey than my beautiful rainbow dress shoes -- that provided excellent support for my feet and plenty of room for ouchy toes.

In my 50's I gave up the dread panty hose and switched to tights. But after three years in construction, even that seemed to complicated and dressy. Now I wear socks, good old cotton socks (blended with nylon and synthetic fibers).

The problem for the last five years, however, was that I didn't buy socks, I just acquired them. Garage sales had been the major source for socks for me in the past. I'm not rough on them and these socks lasted and lasted. They just weren't pretty or interesting or even very well fitted. They did not, however, have any holes.

Last autumn we found a sock outlet going out of business. I went in and bought every single -- YES, you heard right -- EVERY single pair of socks they had. The socks were 75% off. I spent $350 on socks but only paid $85 for them.

I unloaded all the old, dull socks, and now I have soft, pretty, interesting socks for every occasion. I love them! Every day is a new sock adventure!