CowboyBootStories.Com

There once was a boy from Texas who loved his boots. Dancing, rodeos, or just around the house, having them on his feet just felt right. One day he got a call telling him that he had the opportunity of a lifetime. Luckily, his boots where going to get the same opportunity. The young man had received a promotion, and would now be traveling internationally for work. Though this was a great thing professionally, he was most excited about where his boots would get to travel. The first stop they made was in cold Montreal. Though it was cold, with thick sox and his boots he was able to make it through the snow to see Mount Royale, the Olympic stadium, and the underground city. As work continued the boots travel many miles (kilometers). From tropical Singapore and the Merlion, St Paul’s Cathedral, Stonehenge, and the dreary weather of England, Pyramids, Sphinx and the desert dryness in Egypt, and even to the Opera House and the top of the Sydney harbor bridge, his boots traveled with him enduring it all. From hot to cold, wet to dry, under the ground to up on a bridge his boots stood up to the job. Most of all, everyone he met loved his boots. “Ooo those are cool!”, “Where can I get a pair?”, “Do they have other colors?”, “I will buy them from you right now.”, he heard it all. The epidemic had spread. Soon boots will go global, not just any boots, but the boots just like the ones he bought from Boot City. So next time you travel and you are packing your bags, remember the boots and think of the good times you will have.

Life as a farmer in southeastern Idaho during the ’50s and ’60s was a struggle. A good farmer would be able to predict which crops were going to bring the best prices, and plant them in the spring. Ultimately nobody really ever knew, so some years would be good and some would not. One good year my father felt like he could afford a new pair of boots and he bought a pair of Tony Lamas. He always said that ‘you never have to apologize for quality’ and was more proud of those boots than any farmer on the Tyhee Flats. From my 11-year old eyes they were about the prettiest thing I’d ever seen too!

Every year, as a male bonding event, and when the crops were in — hopefully before the first real snow — we’d load up the horses and camping gear and head for higher country…into the places where the air was so clean it was sweet on your tongue, and the water in the creeks was still ice cold, no matter how warm August turned out.

That year we picked a site alongside a creek (if it had a name I forgot it years ago), hobbled the horses and started making camp. We didn’t figure that our horses were as smart as they were, and within minutes they had figured out how to run in hobbles, crossed the creek and were well on their way down the dirt road. When Dad saw that, he grabbed a rope, and without thinking ran through that creek with his new Tony Lamas on his feet. Needless to say, they were soaked by the time he returned to camp with the horses. He didn’t say much but you could tell that a poor farmer had just lost one of his prize possessions. All leather, he knew they would dry out, and never be the same special leather-soled boots.

When we returned from our adventure in the mountains, someone told Dad that if he’d mail the boots directly back to Tony Lama, they’d rebuild the boots and it wouldn’t cost as much as a new pair. Although it sounded like a tall Idaho tale, he did just that: mailed them back to Tony Lama.

I can’t tell you how excited Dad was to get the boot box in the mail, and to discover his boots, looking brand new. Either they’d just replaced them, or they somehow took them apart and put them back together with some magic…I’ll never know, but Tony Lama made that Idaho farmer…a guy that would be dirt poor this year and walking in tall clover the next, one very happy boy from Idaho…and didn’t charge him one cent!

Thanks Tony Lama. Dad is 87 years old this year. He had to give up raising horses a couple of years ago, yet one of his favorite stories is the one about his brand new Tony Lama Boots…and those darn horses who figured out how to run in their hobbles!

well, it all started when we went to visit my sister-in-law in austin texas, in august. they were taking us to all the “big sights”……….of course, the alamo. then we went to a boot store, (because i am a shoe lover from way back!).

since both my husband’s and brother-in-law’s eyes started to roll back in their heads, we lead them to chairs to recover, and kathy and i started to look at rows and rows of beautiful boots!!

i of course, tired everything on they had in my size, when we both at the same time spied a pair of pink and green boots! “that’s them! i gotta have them!”

they were of the softest leather that i had ever felt in boots. they fit perfectly, they looked great, and the i LOVED them!

we showed them to “coma” and “tose” sitting in the chairs, and got the usual husband response. “yes, very nice dear”, until he actually looked and listened to what i was saying…….. “what are you going to do with those in CHICAGO?”

long story short, guess who didn’t get the pretty pink and green boots? yup.

needless to say, i pouted all the way to christmas, (that’s a good 4 months of pouting) until, there under the tree were my pink and green boots!

i guess, he’s not so bad after all.