Pardon the change of plans, but you will have to wait to hear about my life on the GM assembly line in1969. Today I am going back to 1953 and my Fourth Birthday. I was born on July 2nd and so I believed that the July 4th holiday was for me. Somewhere in my archives of 8mm movies, there is a five minute segment of my best birthday party ever—a FIRECRACKER themed backyard celebration. I had a firecracker cake, two blowup wading pools and about 20 kids running around on a gleeful sugar high. That day I received one of the greatest gifts I ever been given—RED cowboy boots.
When I wore them I felt at least six inches higher and really tough. My mom was amazing at knowing what to keep and what to throw away. When Amy Marie turned four in 1978, Grandma Pat pulled the red boots out of the storage closet and said to Amy, “These were your daddy’s, do you think you would like them?” For the next two years they were a daily fashion statement. They had a unisex appeal. When brother Matteo hit the four year old threshold he was the third in line to wear them. He was equally thrilled with the Hand-Me-Down. The boots took the wear pretty well and they were retired in 1983.
They found new playmates when Amy brought Mattias and Zoe into the world. Each one of them proudly sported the red boots as the fifth and six custodians of the “little boots that could” warm any child’s heart. Again the were retired as boots gave way to kids Nikes.
Like their first owner, they did not take well to retirement, and when nephew Jed hit the threshold of being able to wear them, they moved on to their fourth companion. Somehow my sister Rita was able to hold onto them, and when Jed’s two children were born, at age four they both became the custodian of the boots. Weston hit boot retirement age and the boots went back in the closet.
One of the great joys of our lives has been what I call the ‘Bonus Round’—our amazing daughter Steph has blessed us with Sofia and Conor in the back half of her 40’s. A month ago I got an idea—call Jed and find out if he could locate the cowboy boots. Today at my sister Rita Jo and Dave’s 25th anniversary, Jed returned the boots to their roots, me. They certainly are showing the wear of 70 years.
I am going to take them to Dardanos shoe repair and have them rebuilt. The goal is to have them done by Christmas. Sofia doesn’t know it yet but there are red boots in her future. I can’t wait to see how they turn out. I am going to feature them in the ‘before’ of the ‘before and after’ saga of the red cowboy boots. When they are finished I will write about them, hopefully, with my little blonde four year old granddaughter Sofia sporting them while wearing her princess dress from “Frozen”.
If boots could talk they would say to all of you “Happy Trails”
Onward and Upward,
Mark
Lyfting Me Up 