BIG BOOTS

My brother Duke knows all the words of Big Boots from Elvis' movie G. I. Blues.  I am teary-eyed whenever I hear either sing it.

I have some big boots to fill.  Some family reflections on footwear and other bits of trivia:

My brother Bode had a good line: "Do you know what they say about a guy with big hands and big feet?"
"He also has big gloves and big shoes!"  I always use this quip when I hear the recent musings about the meaning of the size of a certain politician's hands.

My brother Norman worked with a guy who always wore shoes which were too big for his feet and the shoes turned up on the ends, making them look like shoes for elves. One day Norman told him, "Just so you know, there's no truth to that rumor you've heard!"

From my brother Les: "Don't criticize a man until you walk a mile in his shoes; that way you can be a mile away from him and you've also got his shoes!"

When my brother Kenny came home after completing his duty at Lackland Air Force Base, he was wearing a pair of cowboy boots with metal tips on the toes;  he called them "Shit-kickin' roach killers".

"If the shoe fits--buy it!"--Imelda Marcos

What kind of shoes do frogs wear?  Open-TOAD!

Lee Hazlewood wrote Nancy Sinatra's These Boots Are Made For Walkin';  I was surprised at the spelling of his surname.

I was pleased to learn that Kinky Boots was based on a true story.

My friend Mona Lisa refers to the current resident of the White House as Puss In Boots; when I asked the reason, she said, "The moral of that story is about the benefits of lying, trickery, and wealth."

When we had our "Barbara Stanwyck Film Festival", where we viewed--and reviewed-- all of Stanwyck's movies, we were dreading watching The Bride Wore Boots, simply because of the title and not wanting our shining star to be tarnished, we were thrilled to be able to appreciate her last comedy.

Also in that movie was Diana Lynn;  I have also watched all of Diana Lynn's movies, simply because I was ALMOST named for her.  After having five boys, my mother assumed the sixth would also be a boy.  She had told my oldest brother Bode that he could name the baby if it were a girl.  Diana Lynn was a cute ingenue on whom he had a crush.  Fortunately for me, Mother declined to give the name to me.

Whenever I have met women of my generation named Diana, I always ask their middle name, and every one was a "Lynn" also!

In They Died With Their Boots On, Errol Flynn could ALMOST make me like Custer!

Das Boot, an epic war movie, had an especially moving scene when they sang It's A Long Way To Tipperary.  

"Das Boot" is also the name for a large, German beer-drinking vessel.