Hello Chieftain!

Man, working is hard. How do you all do it every day?

The closest experience to this is when I started at the Pay-N-Save warehouse when I was 21, being thrust into hard physical labor after months of inactivity. I eventually got into the rhythm there, and after about a year I was in the best shape of my life. I'm hoping something like that happens here, though I have to factor in that I was a hell of a lot younger and more resilient then, and I'm a lot more out-of-shape now.

One other thing that this job has in common with that one: boots.

Once again, I am required to wear steel-toed boots for my job. That part, I actually kinda like. A lot of people go for the low-key, hiking style boots, where you barely notice the steel toes. Me, I go for the huge, clunky black leather jobs, with the thick, rigid soles that clunk satisfyingly on cement floors and turn my walk into a tough-guy swagger.

Back at Pain-N-Slave, I started out with a twenty-dollar pair of starter boots. When those wore out, rather than buy another pair, I dusted off the huge old army boots I had worn to play Eddie at Rocky Horror. Those were the high kind, that came up nearly to my knees, that I had to tuck my pantlegs into. Between the boots, the forced swagger, and the black leather biker jacket, I apparently cut a rather impressive figure. I was referred to, at various times, as "slick," "Terminator," and, as Mowrer will recall, "The Guy With The Boots."

I have another pair of army boots, again for playing Eddie this halloween. I wore them to work one day and could barely walk by the end of the day. Man, I miss being 21.

Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen