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Monday, February 23, 2015
Learn about your antiques and collectibles with Georgia Caraway The history of vintage cowboy boots is as romantic as the boots themselves. Each pair has a story to tell. As Tyler Beard wrote in his celebrated book, Cowboy Boots, (Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2004), “For millennia, horsemen have relied on protective footwear. Man, his boots, and the horse have been inexorably linked in history, legend, myth, and our imaginations.” This week, I am writing about my newest The style of boots from the 1870s came from an passion. I wish I could blame this intense adaptation of the Wellington and military boots emotion on this month-for-lovers, with worn by those fortunate enough to be able to Valentines Day falling in the middle, but alas, it afford boots during the Civil War. By the 1880s, isn’t so. All it took was one soleful glance a more traditional style was developed with a across a crowded Denton antique mall and, well, stovetop boot shaft, some simple decorations, I surrendered to the siren call. Tall and slender, and a higher heel. The most influential pre-1900 well made, and at a glance I could tell, well bootmakers were Charles Hyer of Olathe, Kansas heeled. They molded my feet perfectly. Their and Joe Justin of Spanish Fort, Texas. After the shafts were covered in deep red and white turn of the century Italian bootmakers, Tony stitched patterns. My heart’s desire? A fully Lama and the Lucchese family and the Hyer restored pair of vintage cowgirl boots. As soon Brothers with the introduction of the toe-wrinkle as I tried them on, I declared, “They are mine!” (the straight or curved stitched lines across the top of the foot) made their brand on the industry. I was especially spurred on when a friend The popularity of Western radio and movie stars assured me that if I ever went honky-tonking, and cowboy crooners from the 1920s until the some tall, dark, and handsome cowboy would 1950s such as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Hoot approach me and say, “Nice boots.” Now that is Gibson, Tom Mix, William S. Hart, Hank a pickup line to which a gal might succumb. Williams Sr., and Gene Autry took wearing What could I do but whip out my Visa card and cowboy boots from the silver screen to become a make them mine? Such was the intensity of my fashion statement among regular folks. emotion that I bought two more pair of boots. Bootmakers such as Leddy, Hyer, Acme, Justin, I immediately called my friend, Pamela Daly, Mahan, Nocona, Lama, Lucchese, Sorrell, Tres and told her that lounging next to my soft Outlaws, Rocketbuster, Don Quixote, and Nudie leathery-skinned suitors were a 1950s pair of red produced millions of pairs of boots to satisfy this boots in her size. Of course, Pamela knows I yearning of fans to imitate America’s favorite would never lead her astray in matters of the stars. The period from 1940 until 1965 is heart or wallet, so she dropped what she was considered the Golden Age of cowboy doing and galloped out to the Denton Antique bootmaking. Then along came John Wayne in Gallery and claimed those deliciously decadent the 1960s and Urban Cowboy starring John Valentine -red beauties. Travolta in the 1980s. Tyler Beard calls the late
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Gifted and Talented spring nominations Parents and teachers of students in grades 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th - 7th who wish to nominate their child/student to be screened for possible placement in the Howe ISD GT Program for the 2015-2016 school year may pick up a nomination packet from their campus office beginning Feb. 23, 2015. Nomination forms must be filled out completely and returned to the HES or HMS office by Friday, March 6 at 12:00 noon. For more information, contact Tamela Shadden, Howe Elementary School, at 903532-3320 1980s and early 1990s a period of the “retrocowboy-boot stampede” with vintage boot stores in New York and California causing a resurgence in boot wearing and bootmaking. No doubt about it, cowboy boots have attitude. Come by and look at the front window at 107 East Haning to see my vintage beauties. And if you happen to come on Friday or Saturday, come in and say Howdy. Yee Haw! Dr. Georgia Caraway, former director of the Denton County Museums for 14 years, will be clearing out the building at 107 East Haning Street. It is crammed full of antiques and stuff. The sale will begin Friday March 6 at 9:00 a.m. and go into the evening and Saturday March 7 from 9 a.m. On Saturday everything will be ½ price. Caraway is opening the Howe Mercantile on Howe’s Founders Day, April 25. She has also written Tips, Tools, & Techniques: Caring for Your Antiques and Collectibles and four Denton history books.
