farewell old friends

I've had my docs for almost 5 years now, wearing them almost every day when it was cold enough to not wear sandals, despite feeling too uncool for them. They took me around the US on my first trip here and again when I came for grad school recruitment 3 years later, although the pain I ended up in was the first sign that they weren't as young as they used to be. I got a cool blue pair in London, but they didn't replace my old favourites. Sadly, I didn't take care of them very well here and two new england winters' worth of slush was too much for them. I've been wearing them even with the gaping hole in one and deep cracks in the other, but I knew they weren't going to make it into another winter. Amazingly, I found a pair on ebay for a quarter of the price I paid 5 years ago, that were actually the right half-size (which they don't make anymore) and made in England, instead of some third world sweatshop (as they are now). They arrived yesterday, but I still don't want to part with my original ones. The new ones look a lot more shoddily made and they don't have the tongue attached to the part with holes for laces so I'm not sure they'll be any good at keeping snow out anyway. I hadn't noticed how faded the stitching was on my old ones until I saw these, either. Now I'm not sure I want to go around with blazing yellow on my shoes (although I was very tempted by the rainbow stitched ones I also saw on ebay). I'd also forgotten how stiff and uncomfortable they were for the first few weeks. My old ones are so soft and comfortable. They're actually in pretty good shape for being so old and well-used and I wish I'd figured out what to do to stop them cracking after getting wet. I'll have to figure it out so these ones will last as long, though.
I can't get pictures to work (again) so here are links to before and after.