Every time I would visit my mother, she would dig the boots out of the back of her hall closet and urge me to take them.  As the story went, Aunt Rose, who had expensive taste in clothing and often bought things on a whim that she later did not use, gave her “these lovely boots”.  The boots were winter boots, about calf high, a heavy leather/suede combination with  fleece lining and rubber soles.  I don’t know that they were necessarily made for snow, but they were definitely made for cold weather.  My mother insisted that they were well-made, beautiful and that they would keep me snug and “warm as toast”.  She had only worn them a couple of times.  I don’t know why she was not keeping them herself, but my mother was hell-bent on having me take them.

I resisted.  They looked like old lady boots to me.  They were…