Pluggers by Rick McKee for September 26, 2023

And long enough to tie comfortably.

Sorry fella, this old plugger is sticking to Velcro

But can he or she bend over far enough to tie them, anymore?

For me the shoes usually wear out before the strings ;-)

I’ve been wearing a pair of slip-on “deck” shoes for years. Just about ready to order third pair.

Replace with elastic shoestrings…instant slip-ons.

I’ve always called them shoelaces. Is shoelaces vs shoestrings a regional thing? I’m in New England.

Almost every new pair of shoes I buy, the laces are at least a foot too long or just too ugly, usually both. I keep a supply of shoelaces I like, in different sizes and colors, so I can replace the new ones immediately.

New shoe strings! New shoe strings? Pluggers don’t get new shoe strings, we keep tying the broken ends together. In the case of a missing aglet, a little moisture and some super glue and all is well. If the lace gets too full of knots, a piece of roast lacing string is used.

Truth be told, unless you have to replace the shoestrings at least twice you’re not getting you monies worth out of your shoes.

Back when shoes outlasted the laces…

Slip-ons. Next best thing to sliced bread and maid service!

My Winter boots are the only footwear that have laces and even then I only lace them if the snow is deep …….. otherwise I just put the excess lace …….. in my boot(s) …… :)

Works for me.

Y’know, it really does!

I just buy fancy new aglets. :)

While on the fat side, my body frame is slight (5’1" tall) and I always had trouble buying shoes as the stores would get 1 pair of each style of shoe in 5.5. Then one day I found about the overlap with children’s shoes. 5.5 women shoe size is 4 in girls – or boys – and they cost less.

I have bought children’s shoes since. I past couple of decades generally boys shoes more often than girls. I have heard that children’s shoes are not as well made as they are not intended to last as long as adult shoes. The first non-food shopping trip we took to a store (just to look around) in late 2020 after Covid started one of the things I needed was a pair o shoe laces. One of the ones in my black, boys roller board sneakers had ripped and I had tied it back together in the interim. I added the new shoe lace and am still wearing them – so they have lasted somewhere around 4- 5 years so far. (pretty good as children’s shoes are supposedly intended to last one season) I have lace up boys shoes to wear if raining out or sneakers not appropriate and a pair of boys slip on shoes for the rare dress up occasion.

Did not have much luck this year with slippers. I have 2 pairs – one pair is slide on easy – no back for running to the bathroom at night; the other is fuzzy slippers which are closed in the back and I can safely go up and down stairs in and wear around the entire house. I hate both pairs – but they serve their purpose. The slide on ones are girls slippers in “cotton candy pink” with neon green and neon yellow mixed in. The closed ones are the boys slippers – in camouflage of grey, black and green. Not sure which colors I hate more – but they do their work.