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”!
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)
