Cowboy Boots

Today, I asked Roberto Melendez for a job. Why today? Why not yesterday?…or a 5 months ago, when I cut my hours back at my “day job” in order to make boots? I don’t know. I guess I was scared he’d say “NO”, and I’d be left with my rather pathetic “plan b”…but today, I read Dan’s post on the bulletin board… and suddenly, I pictured myself not making boots at all, but spending all my time battling spam-bots named “Pimp Vibe”…ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!….so I jumped in the Ranchero and headed downtown.

I had asked Mr. Melendez for a job almost a year ago. He told me a polite (yet discouraging) “maybe”. Mr. Melendez hasn’t seen my web site, so I’m not so sure he appreciates the extent of “my enthusiasm” for cowboy boots. Today, however, was different. I brought with me a box of leather samples…the ones I collected at Brownwood last year. It was just what he needed. I was helpful. He has some customers who want shoes and boots made, and he was having problems finding the leather he needed. Mr. Melendez was trained in El Salvador as a bootmaker, now he owns a shoe repair shop in Oakland, California…he’s not quite “in the loop” leatherwise. He’s gonna call Jeff Farmer, and the folks at G&H; leather…once he gets the leather he’s gonna call me, and I get to follow along. I told him I wanted to make and repair boots. I told him he didn’t have to pay me until I got good at somethin’.

(…thanks Dan)

Hey… the Proleptic Inc. website is up and running. (Also known as “The Harness Shoppe News” and/or “Shop Talk” folks.)

It always happens this way…I stick up a new page update, like the history page, and then I find a new link I oughta put up, just when I move on to working on somethin’ else. Anyway, I thought this was interesting (it’s a piece of the research center at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum)…

“GUIDE to the
BLUCHER CUSTOM BOOT COMPANY COLLECTION
1915-1999
(Fitting Books, 1915-1982 in 218 volumes; Indexes, 1915-1936 in 5 volumes;
Catalogs, ca. 1989-1998 & Archival Records, 1986-1999 in 6 document
boxes)

The Fitting books do reflect the ups and downs of the boot business through two world wars, through the depression years, through the 1950s and the golden age of television westerns. Some consider the golden age of boot making occurred between 1940 and 1965. Certainly this collection reflects the economics, geographical influences, and artistic & design changes of this era.”

I like the “context” this places around the fitting books. I was talking to some longtime Nocona factory employees about the time a couple of years ago when the factory shut down….mounds of machinery, and materials…a little of it goin’ to laid off employees, most of it goin’ to waste. No one cared about the paper…the patterns and records.

Here’s an article about the Stewart-Romero Boot Company (sorry…linked expired) written by Jordan Gruener. It follows the company history from Los Angeles to Leon….and from utilitarian designs to fashion frenzy. The moral of the story…..”Give the customers want they want.” ( Much of the source material for the article comes from a personal interview with legendary cowboy singer and television and movie star Rex Allen.)

My new front page is up…I was in better shape than I thought.