I shared to topic of the week with my mother, so this one is for her……She shared a little “funny” from her chilhood. So, here goes the take of:

         “My Uncle Owen’s New Cowboy Boots”

My Uncle Owen, spent months, saving up his spare change. When he had enough money, he picked out the boots he wanted and placed the order.

For weeks, he watched and waited at the mailbox for his prized boots to arrive. When they finally arrived, he was thrilled. He opened the box with care, made sure they fit, wiped the boots down, and sat them by his bed to be ready for school in the morning,

He was up early, dressed and ready to go to school. His hair all slicked back, wearing his nicest jeans and shirt with his new boots. He hopped on the bus and grabbed a seat. He was ready to impress a certain young woman when he got to school.

The one thing he had not counted on, was the heel on his new boots. He should have practiced walking with the heel before wearing them to impress in public.

Unfounately, that young woman he was looking to impress was one of the first people to witness his fall from ‘grace’, when he was stepping off the bus. Poor Owen stood up to head down the bus steps. At the top step, he twisted his heel and fell the rest of the way down the steps. Ruining his bluejeans and scuffing his boots up. He also managed to scrape his knee.

Uncle Owen was mortified. When he managed to make it home, he had a brilliant idea to fix his boots. He spent a few hours in the barn after school, when he walked into the house in his ‘ new, new’ boots; we all just looked at him. He had such a bad day, no one wanted to laugh. If we had, we were not sure what Owen would do. He was getting pretty big for a fifteen year old.

Mom took him out on the porch to talk about his boots. He had cut the heel off both boots in the barn. What he did not realize, was that without the heel, the toe of the boot curled higher. He looked like he was wearing a pair of shoes from Denmark. The wooden shoes with the pointed toe.

Mom came in and ‘shhh’d us all. Owen walked in a few minutes later, without his boots on and sat down for dinner. We never spoke of the incident again. Owen never ordered boots from a catalog again.

Jill and Barry Baynes