Mocassins

Richard and I went to West Yellowstone for our honeymoon. It took us a whole hour and a half to get there. Driving. We stayed in the Westbank on the Snake River in Idaho Falls our first night. It was a nice hotel, but we were starving college students so when we got to West we stayed in two different $10 log cabins that barely had indoor plumbing. Knotty pine a la 40's. We thought the second one might be better than the first. It wasn't, but hey, both cabins had beds and showers. That's all we really cared about anyway.


Saturday afternoon we came up for air and wandered around West. We found the usual touristy restaurants and trading posts. Hamburgers at three times the price because there were bright shiny new wagon wheels on the boardwalk rails in front and red checkered tablecloths inside. And knotty pine. Don't forget the knotty pine. We found a treasure in all this old west hype (lower case intentional...touristy old west is not the same as Old West). Around the corner and up a back street was a boot shop that sold the real article. The little store was no more than the size of a living room but the shelves were full of real leather boots that a man could wear without embarrasment. No trumped up red eagles on shiny black patent leather here, just honest brown leather cowboy boots that were either beautifully tooled or beautifully plain. Tucked back in a corner we found a shelf of mocassins. The real deal. Dirt cheap. Richard asked if I wanted a pair. I didn't have any money. I had spent it all on the wedding buying things like cake and pictures and dresses. Oh yes, I wanted a pair.

They were ankle high with conches and ties on the outside and fringe, a deep roan color. I loved them from the first minute I put them on. I wore them everywhere but to church and work that summer and into the fall. They got better the more I wore them. Those mocassins are my all time favorite shoes.

Somewhere there is a picture of us taken shortly after we got married. We are both in jeans. Richard is wearing his cowboy boots (honest brown leather beautifully tooled purchased in Mexico) and I am wearing my leather soled mocassins.