These boots are made for Combat, but I think I'll wear them at school

            Being poor, my mother struggled to feed and clothe us at times. It’s difficult when your husband is a convicted felon and you’re a secretary. We shopped at Wal-Mart for clothes. The clothes were so cheap they would often fall apart. So I would save up money and buy long johns to wear under my pants in the winter. My shoes would usually only last three or four months. So I got a job and bought my first pair of combat boots. I had them from about the age of 15 until my deployment to Afghanistan 10 years later. I think I might still have them in my shed today.

            I loved those damn boots. When I spilled acid on them at a laboratory I worked at I was so upset. I worked hard refilling the holes with shoe polish.  It worked pretty well. I think when I was in basic training I probably added a quarter of an inch to the outside of those boots with all the polish I put on them

            “You might be driving a Benz jones, but you’re tires look like trash!” Drill Instructor Williams would say to me at inspection. So I worked hard and got the boots looking better than normal. They shined. The Drill Sergeants accused me once of using “leather luster” which was a liquid vinyl that you brushed onto your boots so you didn’t have to polish them. It made them look really shiny. What I’d done was all hard work. I had some amazing looking boots in basic training. I was proud of them.