Socks

So I was talking to my mother the other day, (she IMs me on Skype every few days, mostly to ask what I've been eating lately, I'm not sure why) and I mentioned that I keep having to do laundry because I run out of socks. My mother promptly responded, "When I was in grad school, I knew a girl who had 50 pairs of underwear so that she wouldn't have to do laundry as often," which, in her own special language, means, "Go buy some socks, you stupid girl!" (In retrospect, I really hope the 50 pairs of underwear girl wasn't my mother.)

Therefore, yesterday I went out to buy socks.

If I were in America, and I needed socks, I would go directly to Target, buy two packs of white cushioned ankle socks, and be on my merry way. Therefore, it seemed logical to go to Woolworth's, which was the only Target-equivalent store I could think of.

No socks. Maybe, I thought, British people just don't wear socks?

I wandered bewilderedly about for a while, and then had a thought. Maybe they keep their socks in shoe stores! I wouldn't buy socks in a shoe store in America, but what the heck. And they did have socks, but they were only in children's sizes. I have big feet, so that wasn't going to work. It wasn't a children's shoe store, so I really don't know what that was about. Okay, I thought, maybe only British children wear socks?

I had another thought, and went to an athletic store. They had socks! In packages! But I picked one up, and the price made my jaw drop. Okay, only British children and very rich people wear socks.

I still don't have any more socks. And, as though they sense my predicament, all the socks I brought from America are developing holes. It's kind of shameful. I'll go back tomorrow and try once more for socks. Any suggestions?