Sunday, April 8, 2012

I love a good story...


I love a good story. This one starts with me wandering into this Marine Supply in Anacortes WA... just because it looked interesting, which is was...it is very old, in fact it is the oldest Marine Hardware store on the west coast. Lots of dusty bins filled with all kinds of things that I didn't know what they were.  I saw a sign that read "Boot Socks 35 Cents a pair or 3 for a dollar" They looked really old, but new and I couldn't believe that bargain of a price. Like it was still the original price and they had never gone up. I was actually more interested in the label for a collage than the socks themselves but thought they would be good for slippers.

When I went up to the register I told the man, well I found my bargain for the day and he said well wait till you hear the story about these. They were made by a family business in NY state during WWII and sent overseas to the soldiers. Well the two teenage daughters thought this would be a good way to get a couple GI pen pals for themselves and started stuffing the socks with their names and address. Well the father got ahold of this and demanded they remove all the address papers.

Apparently not all were removed. Jump ahead 50 years to the 1990's when the Marine supply acquires these socks from a Navy surplus. A woman buys some and when she gets home finds one of the names and addresses in the pair she buys. She writes the girl, now an older woman who still lives on the same street but in a different house! The recipenet of the letter brings it to her down the street. Somehow the news gets ahold of this and the purchase is traced back to the Marine Supply in Anacortes!

That was the best 35 cents I have ever spent!

4 comments:

MadBirdDesignsUK said...

Brilliant you could make a movie out of this!!! just think if it was one of the WW11 men who wrote last time. PS new post up.

Carina said...

I love tales such as these and that the internet allows us to share them.

Lynn said...

What a GREAT story!

Gina said...

You got a real bargain. That story is worth way more than 35 cents!