Cowboy Boot

I thought I was pretty damn cool when I wore these boots. I had a black hat that I wore (kinda like the one the guy in the original 'Wild, Wild West' wore) and black socks. I remember it really clearly, considering I was only 4 years old.

I think I wore these 6" tall beauties until I was five or so, and when I outgrew them my mom took one and put it away in the attic (she did that with one of each of our baby shoes, for both Will and me).

I've looked for boots like this, thinking that they'd be a great gift for a friends kids, but the ones I've found are never as cool as these were - the leather isn't good, or they're made of vinyl, or the style is too campy or ridiculous. Kids have enough problems without being dressed up in humiliating outfits, so I'm not going to contribute to that sort of thing.

One of the funny aspects of my childhood, at least from the perspective of the other kids in the neighborhood, was that our parents were so anti-War that they wouldn't let us have toy machine guns or GI Joe action figures - but we were allowed to have Old West guns (Bonanza, etc) and Big Jim action figures. The cowboy stuff always lead to games of Cowboys and Indians, wherein the lucky guys got to be the wily Indians and the slowpokes had to play the part of the hapless settlers and hired guns. Everyone had rifles, Anglo or Native, because toy bow-and-arrows were bound to poke an eye out.

The Big Jim dolls were outdoorsmen (I think there was a Big Jeff, too, and maybe later on down the line they introduced a woman companion, but for the most part it was Manly Camping and Outdoors Activities with a motor boat, jeep, trailer, and tent as accessories.) and weren't intended to be violent in any way, but there was no reason these guys couldn't be mercenaries. Our playmates kindly lent us miniature AK-47s and camo gear for extended missions throughout the neighborhood, but due to our lack of exposure to the nightly news (too much Viet Nam War), or movies like "The Guns of Navaronne" (too much like the real WWII), Will and I generally stuck to adventures involving water-falls, cliffs, pits of alligators, bear attacks, avalanches, biker gangs, extortion, brainwashing, or airplane crashes in the Andes.