The story "Stockings" was very interesting to me. It was a very unique way of conveying the fear that was instilled in all of the soldiers in Vietnam, and how onw man learned to cope with that fear: his girlfriend's pantyhose. "It was his one eccentricity. The pantyhose, he said, had the properties of a goodluck charm" (117). "He sometimes slept with the stockings up against his face, the was an infant sleeps with a flannel blanket, secure and peaceful. More than anything though the stockings were a talisman for him. They kept him safe" (118). The stockings made hime think of his girlfriend, a time when he was in a safe place, a happy time, therefore HE WAS SAFE. This bahvior continued day afer day, then his girlfriend broke up with him. In essence the safe feeling should have been gone from the pantyhose because he no longer had his girlfriend. however, he was guarded by that comfort and did not want to give that up so even though he didnt get the comfort of having a girlfriend, but rather the superstition that the pantyhose were lucky forever. " 'No sweat' he said 'the magic doesn't go away' " (118).