A Little Work Goes a Ling Way by Verna Kosydar of Alaska wins the Cowboy Boot Story contest that ended on May 29th. Her story of hard work and earning her spurs.
Verna can spend up to $200 on her new cowboy boots, thanks to the fine people at bootcity.com. We hope you enjoy her story.
http://www.cowboybootstories.com/2009/05/27/a-little-work-goes-a-long-way/
When I was 13 years old, and having a girlish love of horses,I wanted a pair of black cowboy boots with fancy stitches on the tops.My Dad was not well and had to quit working as a logger in Oregon.Money was in short supply. My Dad and I made a deal, if I could peel enough chittem bark to make money to put towards my new boots,he would take me to Salem, the biggest town near my home and we would buy my new boots! I really didnt mind peeling chittem bark, fighting the gnats and flies was the most irritating part of the job, I actually enjoyed climbing and peeling the tree, especially rewarding when large 1 to 2 foot strips would slip off. Drying the bark took some time , more so when we would get a week of rain common for Oregon coast weather.After weeks of peeling, drying ,chopping then bagging the chittem in gunny sacks, I sold my chittem at the local Mom&Pop country store. Skipping happily home with money in hand, most likely a whole 15 to 20 dollars.Waving my money at Dad grinning from ear to ear, begging for him to tell me if I had enough money and when could we go to the big town for my new boots?When all things fell into place Dad took me to Salem and found my new black cowboy boots with fancy stitches! I wore those boots everywhere! I didnt have a horse of my own but whenever I got the chance to ride I wore my boots with pride! I had my longed and worked for boots into my mid twenties, when I lovingly gave them to my little sister when she was 13 so she could use them while showing her horse in horseshows,which made another dream of mine come true through her, I always wanted to be an experienced horsewoman .She was great and won many blue ribbons in her horseshowing years.I always kidded her that it was all because of my lucky boots!After 36 years of raising a family of nine children,I finally have a horse! I have had my heart set on a pair of ProBaby Boots with some red on them since my horse has a red saddle blanket and after all ,Iam old enough to be a red hat lady.With fancy boots I could once again ride with pride!!
Jason Wilson has now won 2 pair of cowboy boots from Boot City.
We are going to add a rule that you can only win once in a 180 day period to give some other folks a chance. Good job Jason. You know the drill. Check your email for instructions on claiming your cowboy boots.
When I was sixteen years old I developed a “drug” problem, my mom and dad kept dragging me to church! That is a joke for those of you who didn’t get it. Anyway, we attended a small church of about 50 people. There was a man in our church who was small in stature and always dressed in western attire. He always had a bit of a dirty appearance and a handshake that would bring you to your knees. His hands were worn and rugged and he always looked as if he had just finished up a hard day’s work. Sometimes I would smell a little hint of body odor on him. He reminded me of “real cowboy”. As a teenager I felt a little uneasy being around him, (teens seem to be a little too judgmental over appearances.), but when he smiled he would light up the entire room and all of those barriers were broken. He had a way of making you feel as if you were the only one in the room and you were the king. His wife was plain looking and very sweet. She was one of those few people that seemed to drip with love. As a teenager in the 1980’s I was always fashionable with the latest western styles. I always had on my new brush popper shirts and Tony Lama bull hides for church. After church during our ritual handshaking this old cowboy would shake my hand and look at my boots and always say, “you gotta keep the toes scuffed.” For many years I thought he was talking about working hard. You see I would return the favor and look at his boots that had seemingly irreparable scuffs on the toes of his boots. I never said it but thought “I would never wear boots like that”. Several times he and his wife invited me to their home and I am sad to say that despite living only a few miles away I never made the trip. Years went by and I went off to college. I returned home to marry to my preacher’s daughter. I spent several more years chasing bad guys working as a police officer. About eleven years ago I finally surrender to the Lord and accepted my calling to preach. Two years later the Lord moved me back home where we started a church in my hometown. I never forgot this old cowboy but had not spoken to him for years. I heard that his wife had passed away a year before my returning home. He was struggling to keep the ranch going alone. One day I decided to finally take him up on his offer to come by. Driving there in my old Ford I wondered if he would remember me. I thought about the things I could say and after some thought I figured out that I was gonna ask him, “have you kept the toes scuffed?” Little did I know what the Lord was fixing to show me! Pulling into the drive past the old corrals I noticed the lawn was grown up and the house was in need of some repairs. I knocked on the door, but no one answered. I thought I could hear someone talking in the old barn behind the house. As I started toward the barn I thought it was the radio, but as I approached I recognized his voice coming from the barn. The closer I got the more I could make out what was being said. In heard this old cowboy thanking God for his blessings and thanking God for those who had been a blessing to him. He prayed for the church and asked God to bless them, never once asking anything for himself. Then I heard him say something that shocked me! He began to ask the Lord to bless me! Then he said my name! I did not want to disturb him but could not help from glancing into the barn. There he was kneeling down in the gravel and dirt praying. I could not help but notice the toes of his boots were buried deep into the dirt and gravel and then it hit me, “you gotta keep the toes scuffed”!
Week four winner Mat Teagarden shares his horror story of a very expensive pair of missing boots. Matt’s story had an average rating of 4.86 and is good enough to win him $200 worth of free cowboy boots from Boot City - The Best Western Store in Texas (and by default, the country)
Matt’s story was titled The boot switcheroo and can be found here http://www.cowboybootstories.com/2009/04/18/the-boot-switcheroo/
Congratulation Matt, you can claim your free cowboy boots today. (or anytime in the near future, just watch your email for details)
A few years ago I was in the market for a new pair of boots. After quite a bit of looking, I settled on a nice pair of ostrich boots I found in the Lucchese catalog. I was looking forward to my first pair of Luccheses. However, my patience would be tested, since the boots were not scheduled for production for several weeks.
In the meantime, I shared with several coworkers my excitement about my new boots. Our office is full of boot wearers, so the subject comes up quite often around the break room table. It turns out, I might have done a little too much talking about my new boots.
Months went by until finally one Friday evening I was checking email from home. I had been on the road that day and hadn’t seen any email all day. You might ask why this is important to the story. The answer is my inbox contained the email I had been waiting for all those months. The email was from the lady in our office mail room with the simple subject line, “You have a UPS package.”
I was so excited. The only UPS package I was expecting was my boots. I certainly couldn’t wait until Monday to get them and could barely wait until Saturday to make a special trip to the office to get them.
When I arrived at the office I grabbed the box and headed to my office to have my first look. My first disappointment came as I opened the box and saw the boots were brown, not black like I ordered. As I opened the box further, I saw the boots were not even the style I had ordered. When I pulled one of the boots out, I noticed some dried manure on the sole – they weren’t even new!
As I processed what was happening, several thoughts went through my mind. Maybe it was a simple mistake. Maybe someone at the factory liked my boots so much they switched their old ones for mine. Or – maybe my coworkers were playing a prank on me.
The boots looked a little familiar to me. But the box didn’t look like it had been tampered with. It even had the fancy official UPS plastic strap around it.
I decided the quickest action I could take was a search of the office. My first stop was my prime suspect’s office. Nothing. I checked a few other offices then decided to confront the prime suspect directly.
He picked up his cell phone right away. I tried to play it cool with some small talk before springing the trap on him. “What size boots do you wear?” The boots in the box are size 12. Empty trap – he said he wore 10s. Convinced (good liar) he didn’t know anything about it, I told him what had happened. Still nothing to tip me off he was a conspirator.
I called the retailer, called Lucchese, began forming a posse. I even tried contacting Walker and the other Texas Rangers. My boots were missing and had to be found! Being a Saturday, I didn’t get very far and decided the investigation would have to wait until Monday.
Monday morning, one of my coworkers stops by my office to ask a question. I was a little distracted and didn’t notice her new boots right away. When I did, I knew I had been had. Call off the posse, stand down Walker, Texas Ranger.
I learned several things from this experience. One – the Luccheses were well worth the wait. Two – I can’t trust my coworkers. And three, don’t ever have anything personal shipped to the office again!
We picked a winner this week, but we have issue with cheating. (not the Pastor)
It is sad to say, but we had to figure a way to disqualify some of the voting, it appears that some people want the free boot so bad they have found a way to vote multiple times. They vote a 5 for their story and a 1 for the other stories on the website. This is the 2nd week in row that we have had this problem so we have devised a way to strip out the bad votes on the back end. - This week, the winner of the $200 in free boots had 74 votes and an average score of 4.26.
Congratulation Pastor Wilson on your winning story Grandpas Boots, just so you know, I still sport my pointy toe boots on a regular basis. Your Cowboy Boot Story was well written and touching.
We hope you enjoy your boots.
“What are you gonna do with those pointy toed boots?” they would say. “You gonna kill a spider in the corner?” The jokes would go on and on about my grandpas black pointy toed boots. I grew up just a mile down the road from Grandma and Grandpa in northeast Oklahoma. There was not a day went by that my feet did not enter some type of cowboy boots, but I never would have worn a pointed toed boot like grandpas. We rode and fed horses and cattle everyday in boots, you know regular boots like ropers and round toed boots. We left the pointy toes up to grandpa to wear. Every year I would go to the store before school started and would buy me a new pair of boots. I would always take them for grandpa to look at right out of the box. A year never went by that he did not ask me “when are you gonna get you some real boots with pointy toes?” I would laugh and tell him, “I aint gonna wear those things!”
That has been over 25 years ago now. Grandpas black pointy toed boots are in the garage stored away in a box for safe keeping. He has been suffering from prostate cancer now for over a year. It has been tough on a man of 82 who took care of close to 1500 acres for most of his adult life to not be able to do it anymore.
I spent Easter Sunday afternoon with grandma and grandpa this week. I got to show him my new pair of boots for possibly the last time. He told me “those are the best looking boots you have ever had, they look good on you,” as he looked at my new pair of Lucchese black pointy toed 1883’s. I guess we should never say never.
This is our second week of sponsoring the Cowboy Boot Story project.
The second week brought some great stories, and we have heard that the Country Music Writers Guild is now using the cowboy boot story website as a source for inspiration…
The winner of the $200 prize towards the cowboy boots of their choice is… Martha Allen of Florida, Martha wrote a story titled Two miles of Fence, Six pounds of Mudd
Martha will be allowed to pick out a new pair of boots and leave the old boots in the pasture
Congratulation Martha, you can claim your new boots today. (or anytime in the near future, just watch your email for details)
During the rainy season, in Oklahoma. We had a large Brama Bull. He always thought the grass was always greener on the other side. Being the big boy that he was, he was constantly busting through the fence. It so happened on this particular day ,James, the bull named after one of our cantankerous rancher friends, decided to bust the fence during the coldest rainiest day of that Month. Well here I go -hat on my head, running pulling on my coat as I went, grabing gloves,wire, posts and pliers. I had to get to the fence fast because we had two ponies and several calves on the ground. They would follow James at the drop of a hat. I made it, fixed the fence, got back to the house. I was heart broken when I looked down at my feet. I had been in such a hurry, I had forgotten I was wearing my good boots. My Boots were full of mudd, each in fact had three pounds of mudd- inside and out. I loved my denim blue tall top boots. They were my favorite, I lost them to two miles of fence and six pounds of mudd. I never have been able to find another pair like them to this day.
