The saying “you can tell so much about someone from looking at their shoes” is worth exploring in Texas. Every shoe and every boot has a story. Laurie Langy Reagan remembers her father coming home to their west Texas farm in his Red Wing boots — always worn with monkey socks.
Reagan says that when her parents moved out to west Texas, they had nothing. They broke the land and had little money. But despite the hardship, Reagan says that the community was uplifting.
“I remember knowing intimately our banker. What Jimmy Taylor said, either we could do it or we couldn’t do it,” Reagan says. “The kids worked on the farm every day and summers were not fun, but we were happy. We were a close-knit community. We had dances and relatives all over. We did everything together.”
Reagan remembers the smallest details about her dad’s work boots and the monkey socks he wore underneath.
“I always seemed to be there when he’d come in. Maybe it was really cold and he’d put his boots by the stove and he had those monkey socks,” Reagan says. “He’d put those on every morning very slowly. He’d roll down the cuff because they lost their elasticity pretty fast. He always knew where to roll them down so they’d be just above the boot top when he’d tie the laces.”
Reagan says that after her father passed away, she took over the farm.
“He only had an eighth grade education and yet, so many people came out to the funeral and just told wonderful stories,” Reagan says. “If that could happen, even just a tenth of that when I go, I would consider myself a lucky person.”
Written by Haley Butler.
