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Life

Why Do I Wear Boots?

I’m not a cowboy. I like cows — medium, please — and I like to ride horses, but that’s as far as it goes. I have friends that are honest-to-goodness cowboys and trick roping wonders, but that’s not me.

Charlie trick roping.
Cowboy Charlie ropes an ornery one.

So why do I wear boots? Because my dad did.

My dad grew up on a dairy farm, getting up early to milk the cows before school, working the fields during harvest, riding horses and tractors, and doing general farmer/rancher stuff growing up. He wore boots, because that what you do when you do farmer/rancher stuff in the California Central Valley.

Joanna at Halloween
Happy cows, happy cheese.

I sit (or stand) at a desk and write code. I have no need of boots, but I wear them anyway, because that’s what was modeled for me as I grew up.

Joanna riding her pony
We keep this one stabled in the living room.

I remember the days when I would dig into the shoe shine kit in the closet, grab my dad’s boots, and shine them up. It was fun, and shining my own boots brings back those good memories. I remember putting on those too-big boots and trying to walk around in them, just like my daughter does with my own boots. She’ll often decide to put her own boots on when she sees me wearing mine. I guess it’s a family thing. 🙂

I hope that one day someone will ask Joanna (or she’ll ask herself) “Why do you wear boots?”.

I expect her answer will be “Because my daddy does.”