The Boot Story

We're back home after Sid's visitation and funeral Wednesday in Red Boiling Springs, Tenn. and his graveside service yesterday in Johnson City. It has been a sad last few days.

That said, that's the last thing that Sid would have wanted. So much so, that I think it would be wholly appropriate to share one of the most infamous "Sid" stories ever told. There are at least a couple of different versions of the tale, and this is Rick's, as recounted in a column he wrote that was published in the June 9, 1994 edition of The Alleghany News following the death of Sid's father, Ronald Sidney Houston:

Ronald Sidney Houston, my grandfather, passed from this life into the next early on the morning of June 5. The first thing that struck me after walking away from that hospital room was that I'd never hear the "boot" story again.

At least not like Papaw told it ...

The story concerns my father as a young boy, my great-uncle Ben, a fishing trip and a pair of boots. It was the kind of tale that got better each and every time it was told.

The story goes like this. One of Uncle Ben's favorite sayings was that so-and-so didn't have enough sense to pour you-know-what out of a boot. If anybody -- it didn't matter who -- did something stupid, Uncle Ben would declare, with varying degrees of embellishments, this particular oath.

On this particular outing, Uncle Ben took off his boots and wandered off for some reason. Dad promptly decided that he would put Uncle Ben to the test and see if he actually had enough sense to pour you-know-what out of a boot.

So Dad ... well ... you-know-whatted in Uncle Ben's boots. And, apparently, Uncle Ben really didn't have enough sense to pour you-know-what out of his boots before he put them back on.

At about this point in Papaw's version of the tale, anybody listening would be in tears laughing. Except, of course, Uncle Ben and Dad. To this day, Uncle Ben declares Papaw should have beat the living daylights out of Dad, while Dad denies it ever happened. All the while, Papaw just kept smiling that devilish smiles of his.

RICK'S NOTE:
Dad, in the last few days, I have been by your bedside and to your funeral and burial. I still can't believe you're gone. Please know that I love you, and so do Jeanie, Adam and Jesse. Doug and I will do everything we can to make you proud.