I have wanted red boots since I was 16. That was the year I saw Footloose for the first time. Ariel, the gutsy small town girl who wants to really feel alive wears the boots to drive her daddy crazy. My dad probably wouldn’t have cared at all, but I liked her because she felt bold and wild and she wanted adventure (and, of course, to dance with Kevin Bacon). I wanted to be like that.

Red boots certainly wouldn’t take me away from home or make me a different person, but they’d be a whole lot of fun.

Though the stereotypes may suggest different, growing up in a suburban area of Kansas didn’t really make cowboy boot shopping a common occurrence. I never found a pair of boots that worked. I settled for red pumas and red ballet flats, but I never gave up the desire for those shoes.

Ten years later and I still have not found the perfect pair of red cowboy boots — although, I’ve certainly expanded my search options by spending the last four years in Texas. As I’m facing my what could probably be my last year in Texas, I’ve decided this is the year.

The year of the red boot.

I know that if I put my mind to it I can find the perfect pair of red boots. Low brown heel, aged red leather, intricate pattern stitched up the side. If the boots have a story — a history — even better. While I once wished for red boots because of the sense of possibility they suggested, the chance to break out of the place I’ve always known and find the world out there waiting for me, I now wish for red boots because of the life I’ve attained.

I recently watched Footloose again and remembered the first time I watched it. I was 16 and wishing to be anywhere, anywhere, but where I was. Surely someone had made mistake. I was not meant to live my life in Kansas. I was bored and desperate to have a life a little less ordinary. A life that featured a great pair of red boots.

As I watched the movie again, sitting on my couch in my house in Houston, I liked the movie for entirely different reasons. Instead of seeing just Ariel’s plight in the movie, I saw her parents struggling with their own realities of what it means to be adults with fears and challenges while trying to love a headstrong teenager. I saw not just a close-minded small town obviously too small and pent up for the likes of characters like Ariel and Ren, but a community that loves and values its safety and children and faces the challenges of a new and changing world. I saw my experiences as an “old, lame” teacher who has to be the one to say no and a big city girl working in a small town newspaper where I learned the comfort that can be had when everybody truly does know your name.

Now I want those red boots because I found my adventure. I don’t need them to be bold or break the rules, because I’ve done that all on my own. I want them because I’m living the life I always dreamed of and one I never imagined. I certainly never dreamed I would understand Ariel’s uptight pastor father or the townspeople who burn books at the public library, but I do. With age, and four years teaching a few hundred teenagers I’d give nearly anything to keep safe, has come a little bit of wisdom I suppose.

As I set off on my next adventure, I want to take something with me to remind me of those days in Kansas and who I used to be. I want to carry the little inkling of Texas pride that has developed in me in boot form (because I certainly will not be hanging a Texas flag on my wall anytime soon).

I stopped in a small vintage thrift store on my way to Dallas last weekend and shared my red boot desires with the woman working there. She pulled every red boot she had while she asked me about my childhood, college years and why the heck I didn’t make it down to Texas sooner than now. None of the boots fit or had the right specifications, but she kept looking. While walking around she showed me a fantastic pair of brown leather boots with a low heel and beautiful flower pattern etched up the side. I tried them on out of curiosity and proceeded to walk around the store painfully debating whether or not I could justify adding this pair of boots to my collection before attaining what I was really after.

Finally, I shook my head and started to remove them while I apologized for taking up so much of her time.

She smiled “Oh honey,” she drawled, “Don’t you worry. I get it. When it’s right, it’s right. And I’d bet you’ll find your boots just like you found the life you wanted: when and where you least expect it.”

She then told me that she was expecting a new shipment next week so when and where I least expect it might be back in her shop around 2 p.m. on Wednesday if I was near I-35 between Austin and Dallas around that time.

I’ve got at least six more months in Texas to find my red boots and I’m bound and determined to do it. That’s one of the things about Ariel that I appreciated both then and now: her stubborn refusal to give in. That’s a quality that’s not changed in me and probably never will.

And one of these days I’ll have the red boots to prove it.

2 Responses to “Red boots”

1. missy Says:
   December 5th, 2009 at 6:56 pm

   sam! i have always wanted red boots too… hope everything is wonderful– and you find your boots!

2. Liv Says:
   December 8th, 2009 at 11:05 pm

   I’m looking for the red boots, but I’d probably look harder if you hung a Texas flag on your wall.

Leave a Reply