One thing I always keep near and dear in my heart are all the stories my Mom told of growing up in Texas. Over the years I’ve shared some of these stories of mine that live on in my heart. And although my Mom is no longer with us, her stories of her childhood in Texas stay tucked close to my heart, just where she would have wanted them to be! Her parents married young, and lived in Lubbock, Texas. My Grandpa Hobson was a rancher, but I like to remember him as a cowboy. I’ve seen some pictures of him where he is riding a bronco and another where he is driving a tractor to herd the cattle. Their little family never had much, but my Mom always told the story about people coming to their back door during the Depression and giving people what food they could. I guess that was my first story, as I child, that I truly understood as a lesson learned about the importance of giving back, paying it forward whenever you were able to. Sadly, as much as my grandparents loved Lubbock, after the Depression and all, it was time to re-locate to Temple where more jobs were available. My Grandma Madge took a job as a waitress and my Grandpa Hobson drove an oil truck.
When I look back at old pictures, there are two things that stick out in my mind. In every picture of my Grandpa, no matter where he was, he had on cowboy boots! And usually, not always, he had a dog or cat in his lap as did my Mom. Funny how some traditions are picked up years later, as in rescuing and helping any cat or dog that needs help today. And my kids are just as bad about that as I am, and as their grandparents were. The life lesson I learned as a child, and that my kids learned as children, is about how it’s just not “right” to ignore people or animals that may need of a little help in life. That is something that has stuck with us all!
After having just a sister, then having my two daughters, when Bryce was born, the first boy in our family, excitement spread like a Texas tornado! I remember there was only one Western store nearby. It was in Bellflower, when the city use to be a Dutch community and downtown Bellflower was filled with little stores. My Mom knew exactly where to find my little baby boy, her first grandson, a pair of little cowboy boots. Funny how we hang on to those precious memories, just like they happened yesterday, rather than years ago.
Today I still have Bryce’s little cowboy boots in a little vignette in my home. I remember buying Riley, my first granddaughter, a pair of red cowboy boots. Hey, we have to carry on the family tradition! They are in her bedroom at home. I had kind of forgotten about all of that until recently. At Country Roads I saw a little pair of rattleskin cowboy boots. The toes on the boots are scuffed up a bit from, what I imagine, some little boy kicking rocks around while wearing them. They had my grandson Bodhi’s name written all over them. I had to bring those little boots home . And guess what comes in the store next? Another pair of little red cowboy boots that I can have at my house for Riley, and some little pink cowboy boots for Morgan! Along with Bodhi’s little boots, and Bryce’s childhood cowboy boots, I thought all the boots might make a sweet little vignette in my home. Remind me of the importance of family and memories that have been re-created many years later. One of the reasons I love what I do, having a store like Country Roads, is because of the memories it brings to mind all the time. In this disposal able world we live in, it warms my heart to be surrounded by things, items that have a story to be told. Just like my “Texas Roots and Cowboy Boots”!
