One More Thing

I don't want to seem like I'm working on the Imelda Marcos Shoe Award, but I have found one more thing to be happy about in Michigan: Boots, made in Michigan.  Just like they always have been for 120+ years.

When I was a little kid I used to get a pair of "summer boots." I don't remember too much except that they had hooks, leather soles, and I would get them at the end of the summer, presumably to break-in for the school year ahead. I'm pretty sure, however, I was no more than 5 or 6 when this transpired. If memory serves me, the trip to the Buster Brown shoe store would follow a trip to see Uncle Earl. Uncle Earl was my Mom's brother-in-law, a dentist who did more to set back pediatric dentistry in Portland, Oregon than Stalin did for free speech in Russia. Hitting, screaming, threats-- and that was the dentist! Our Mom would wait in the lobby while we squirmed, bit, and kicked. But if we survived and had not committed felonious crime in the dental chair, we went to the shoe store.

My new discovery is of Wolverine 1000 Mile Boots made in Rockford, Michigan. These babies are, to be sure, my old summer boots re-incarnate. The price is probably 40 times what my Mom paid but, boy, are they nice. If you get an urge to buy that one great pair of everyday boots for dress up or dress down, consider sending a portion of your 401K to the crew in Rockford, Michigan. It's an indulgence but it's good to keep the really good things going.