favorite boots ever

my favorite boots ever would have to be my first pair. purchased back in 1990 in Madison, WI at a hole in the wall Army surplus store off of State Street for about $40 or so. they were brand new army issue of an obsolete style (the man at the shop said that they are referred to as "pancake" boots because the toes flatten out relatively fast).

i bought them for my Study Abroad semester in London that started January 7th 1991. my first long walk in them was form the hostel to Buckingham Palace (about an hour). NOT a good way to break in new boots... my feet were so sore, i had to unlace them to JUST tight enough to not fall off my feet. we took the Underground back to the hostel (thank the gods; i couldn't walk another step that day...)

but after my feet recovered, i did a LOT of walking around London; i convinced a good percentage of the group to walk places with me-- if we were seeing a show for Theatre class there was usually enoug time between dinner and showtime to walk to the West End (sometimes even walk home).

Our class schedule was open enough that we had a great deal of free time, which were were encouraged to use sightseeing. for the sake of excercize and saving money, we walked as much as possible to the point where i was easily walking 10-15 miles a day.

this wear and tear was taking its toll on my boots, and it was during this semester that i realized that i was going to have to figure out FAST how to get the most life out of my boots by taking care of them the best i could. i think that the tin of Kiwi that i was using was just the tin of polish that had been in the junk drawer at home since the dawn of time (i never saw anyone in my family polish shoes, but still that tin moved three times with us...) and i was using a toothbrush to "buff" the polish until i found a more proper brush in Cambridge at a street vendor... Even still, a bootblack was in the making...

by the time the semester was over, the soles were worn completely smooth, but i didn't have the money to buy a new pair (and my size is hard to come by... i now realize how lucky i was to have found THIS pair fairly easily).

Those boots ran the Olympic track in Rome, explored the Catacombs of Paris, dug in to the WWI trenches of Belgium, marched through Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, climbed the stairs to Anne Frank's annex in Amsterdam, tread the grounds of Buchenwald where so many gays were imprisoned, tortured and worked to death by the Nazis.

and one day, those boots went missing-- as so many of my personal possessions did over the course of a five year period i wish never happened... (the bitch stole my Christmas stocking, for pete's sake!)

A few months ago at my favorite Goodwill, i found an EMMACULATE pair of pancake boots for all of three dollars. they were so new that the tread still had remnants of the moulding sprues. i bought them without even checking the size-- i didn't care if they fit or not; they were identical to my first pair! i checked the size when i got to the car... i actually got choked up when i realized that they WOULD fit. they are date-stamped from 1984.

i haven't worn the new boots much. they sit on the top shelf of my boot rack. actually i think the last time i wore them was at IML... for Alan's Last Shine and then that evening on stage when i was up on stage for the announcement of the new IMrBB, Arthur.

they will be saved for specical occasions.