My Grandfathers Boots

Being sef-sufficent.

 

Spring and summer evenings, after supper my grandfather would go out to the long covered porch at the end of the house and sit in his big rocking chair. There were an even dozen rocking chairs, his and Mamaws which sat in the center of the porch, and ten more for any other adults who happened to be there. Grandkids always sat on the concrete porch floor unless there weren’t enough adults to fill the other chairs. Each of those rockers was made of wood that had come from the trees, oak, hickory, persimmon, pine, that had been cut from the hillside to make way for our two houses.

 

The first rocker he had made was for Mamaw, a smaller-sized chair because she was a small woman, made of hickory because he said “she might be a little woman but she’s tougher than hickory” with three sunflowers lovingly carved into the head piece. Then he made his, much bigger for he was a big man, well over six foot six and nearly two hundred eighty pounds. His chair was made out of white oak because, he said “that’s about the only wood strong enough to hold me up.”

 

First thing he would do after sitting down would be to loosed the laces of those old Wolverine boots and push each one off with the opposite foot. Funny thing was that those were the only kind of boots he would wear. I can still hear him say “why change something that works.” I remember how big they seemed. I wasn’t a big kid at ten but I could stand with both feet in one boot and Mamaw would laugh and tell me “you have a long way to go before you can ever fill those boots.”

 

One spring evening, we were sitting on the porch when an old truck pulled into the gravel drive that wound up the hillside to the house. It wasn’t unusual for someone to stop by just to chat for a while but this particular truck belonged to the minister of the little Baptist church a long mile down the road and it was unusual for him to come by. Mamaw went to church every Sunday dragging me along but Papaw refused to go, which a story itself. The truck stopped at the end of the drive and the minister got out.

 

“Evening” he said as he stepped up on the porch.

 

Papaw didn’t have much use for the man but was, at least, polite and acknowledged the greeting.

 

“Mother’ll be out in a few minutes, Reverend.” (Papaw always called Mamaw “Mother”.)

 

“Well, I came by to talk with you about something” said Rev. Mynatt. “One of our brothers needs a hand and I thought maybe you would help us out. I’ve already talked with a couple of others and they’ve said they’d help out.”

 

“What sort of help are you talkin’ about?”

 

“Ray Jenkins, down the road is havin’ a bit of trouble this spring gettin’ started……”

 

“You mean he was too lazy to work his own fields?” Papaw asked. He didn’t think too much of Ray Jenkins because the man was lazy and always asking for help. He seemed to expect that everyone would help him out whenever things got behind or he needed something. Too, it was common knowledge that he had a still back in the woods and drank most of what he made so most of the time he was drunk.

 

“Now we all have our faults and problems, and it’s only right to lend a hand” Rev. Mynatt said.

 

“Reverend, I’ll gladly help any man that’s makin’ the effort to help himself but Jenkins don’t make any effort to take care of his own family. If it wasn’t for the church his wife and those seven kids wouldn’t have food to eat or even clothes to wear.”

 

Few things could make Papaw angry but this was one of those things…people who expected others to bail them out. He believed that if a person wanted something that he should work for it, earn it themselves.

 

“As long as I have known that man, he has always depended on neighbors and the church to do what he’s too lazy to do. He’s learned that everyone will step in and help so why should he do for himself? No sir! That man needs to get a hold of those bootstraps and pull his own self up!”

 

The Rev. Mynatt knew once Papaw spoke there was nothing else he could say or do to persuade him so he left.

 

I had sat there and listened but there was one thing that puzzled me, something I didn’t understand.

 

“Papaw, what are bootstraps?” I asked.

 

Chuckling, he leaned down and picked up one of his old boots by the loop at the top of the back, “this is a bootstrap” he said holding it up so I could see in the dim light of dusk.

 

“But what did you mean by Mr. Jenkins ‘pullin’ him self up by his bootstraps’?” I asked.

 

“That’s an old expression, a metaphor. It means helping yourself without having or expecting anybody help you. It was that ethic that built this country, people doing things for themselves, being self-sufficent.”

 

“It’s like that bird house you asked me to make and I said no. I showed you how but I didn’t do it for you and you learned how to cut boards and measure and nail, didn’t you?” He asked. “If I had done it for you then you wouldn’t have learned anything.”

 

“It’s like that proverb Mother uses ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed     him for a lifetime.’ If that man learns to do things for himself, he don’t come lookin’ for others to catch fish for him.”

 

“Jenkins has to learn to do for him self, but he won’t learn if people keep helpin’ him. People been doin’ for him so long now he knows he don’t have to do for him self any more. Man’s got to stand on his own two feet and make things better for him self. Sure does make a man feel good about his self knowin’ he did it on his own.”

 

For Papaw and so many others who came to this country with nothing more than the clothes they wore it was a matter of pride. They saw the opportunities in this country and they used their own initiative, took advantage of those opportunities to build better lives on their own without help from anyone or the government.

 

Today there are so many opportunities available but those opportunities now begin with education. Education in this country is free until the college level and even then there are many, many assistance programs available. It is still a simple matter of taking advantage of those opportunities.

 

Which brings me to something I heard Obama talk about during the Democratic convention, he spoke about “fairness” and “the need to do more” for the American people. He wants to raise the taxes for those people who have incomes over a certain figure and he has plans to taxes businesses at a higher rate because they make too much profit. Isn’t that the purpose of a business?

 

So what he is saying that for those people who have used their own initiative to make better lives and those companies whose are in business to make a profit, he wants to take the fruits of their labor and give it to those people like Jenkins, people who have learned that they can live off the many government programs. What Obama is literally saying is that he wants to redistribute the wealth of this nation which is nothing more than the central idea to a socialist/communist society.

 

Bootstraps? Yes, time for folks to grab hold of their own bootstraps and start pulling themselves up, because those of us that have been footing the bill for so many years are fed up.

 

No more taxes!

No more bloated, inefficient government!

No more idiots in Congress ignoring We the People!

Reviews

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I have no idea why you figured I would not like this story. I love it and agree with much of it. Gee whiz...how is it that I can write here if I no longer have an account. I wonder if this is invisible ink. Yes, Obama will redistribute the wealth. Much as the fake so-called conservatives have done. He will take from the rich and give to the poor. It is unfair and it is my pocket that it shall come out of. He will tax us to death.

On the other hand the Republicans will not raise our taxes. No, they will continue to sell America to the highest bidders [or perhaps even the lowest] China, Saudi Arabia and those who are NOT our friends. And this will be done to support their wars and other projects so dear to them. One way or the other it will come out of your pocket and mine.

Why?

Because the other side has perpetuated the myth that making money is the beginning and end all of life. It should be in their eyes the supreme goal of all Americans. They believe that it is the moral right and should become the moral goal of each person who lives in this fine country to subscribe to the theory that making excessive amounts of money no matter how dishonestly, nor at what cost to the country, nor at what cost to one another, is the supreme goal to attain. This is the sole reason that the wealthy are encouraged to manage business [ONLY if it is big and makes huge amounts of money] in any fashion that earns them money. No high ground is to be taken, nor moral fiber to enter into dealings, no, there are no rules just as long as HUGE amounts of money are made.

Small business and big business are not subject to the same rules or taxation. Cheating, stealing, falsification and dishonesty are not simply encouraged but mandated as the sums of money at stake to be made grow higher. Not only will people look the other way they are urged to do so. Nor is life held dear when dealing with excessive amounts of money, murder if the stakes are high enough is perfectly acceptable.

Surely you you know and understand that it is just these facts that perpetuate the growth of communism and socialism.

Yes, it is and has always been the unfair treatment by the top few of the lower masses that has produced what you despise most of all socialist and communist regimes. History will show you that they grow out of a sense that there is no fairness when dealing with the people. If people were not consumed with greed and treated others in an even handed fashion fair and free government would prevail. Were goodness and morality to mandate equality and fairness, opportunity and rights then there NEVER would have been the revolutions that produced totalitarian [communist regimes].

When you have a very poor city whose tax base is eroding and you give tax credits to a big business, and then turn around and tax the "poor" taxbase for the purpose of building that business a stadium that is not needed, and the business makes all of the revenue tax free for many years to come from this state built stadium ... well, I need not go on for this is what America has become. And this is the sole reason it will fail...................for it no longer has a soul.

Neither candidate can serve the needs of the people. We are losing our freedom to several things.

#1. We currently have a government moving towards autocracy, a dictatorship with the executive branch being given unbalanced power.

#2. The other side sees this as unfair with more for the rich and less for the poor.

#3. Then there are the millions of Americans who irresponsibly take the lead of our government and go into debt for NOTHING. Simply because they WANT...WANT...WANT more garbage.

#4. You can not be free while in debt to another. If you are in debt you are NOT free.

Well, now you and I are going to bail out Frannie & Freddie Mac.....haven't we bailed McCain out of one banking S&L debacle already? What is this about anyway? GRRRRREED! undo the banking regs, get rid of them in the name of freedom then encourage EVERYONE in America to by a house whether or not they can afford it.......

Oh yeah, I remember when Bush said "I am going to see that everyone owns there own home, I want everyone to own a house this will become an ownership society." The problem with that is that not everyone wants to own a home. And not everyone can afford a home. But our government fixed that. Deregulate, encourage banks to make massive numbers of bad loans, default on all the loans....and what do you have VERY RICH BANKERS and a BAILOUT by the taxpayer........NO, this is not called a tax...but who cares it is money out of my pocket to bail out bad debt encouraged by greedy irresponsible and criminal bankers. Encouraged by Mr. Bush who heads this country..........I knew when i heard those words what we were in for.

[The Elder]

A great write my friend.
As I write this review Obama has been in office about six months and your words have proven to be prophetic.
He and his free spending cronies, without reading a word of any of them, have already rushed through, and are attempting to rush through, laws that are, and will continue to do so, bankrupting our country and turning it drastically toward socialism.
He has apologized to all our enemies for our mistreatment of them, reduced our national defense, and turned us into a nation which is perceived as weak and comical.
I'm sorry for the young people in this country who will have to pay for his policies for generations to come.
Thanks for a well written, thoughtful and provocative piece.

[Lady Raven Spirit]

Of course I love it too..............time to write again old man. We need fresh words.

[Winter McPherson]

Here! Here! and Amen! You make a great point. There are some typos but the nostalgia of the beginning and the great point at the end made it an interesting read!

[Ruby Moon]

ooo...
i think you and lady raven cover alot
@.@
i think i am learning politics and the people's view here,
but reading your posts and her reviews
^-^
its nice how you put in a story or an experience and link it...
putting issues and boiling them down in everyday language,
making it close to the heart and home