Me and Santa!!

 Hi there

I was decluttering my house last week (Swedish Death Cleaning?) and I came across some old photos.  There I was as a child, sitting on Santa's knee, deep in thought, telling Santa the present that I wanted from him that Christmas.  I'm pretty sure it was "a horse that bucks and gallops", a step or two up from a rocking horse and I wanted it desperately.  But ... sigh, I didn't get it.

But looking at the photo, I noticed I was wearing my beloved cowgirl boots.  They were really gum-boots  ('Wellingtons' if you're from Great Britain).  My boots were red with lariats entwined around the tops.  

I loved cowboy movies and I so wanted to be a cowboy.  Not a cowgirl.  Girls in westerns were sissy.   They were ranchers' daughters who needed help getting up on wagons, and the closest they got to shooting was handing rifles to the hero as he took aim out of a ranch window.  

Mum had bought me a pearl-handled pistol and holster.  There were bullets around my gun belt.  I got a waistcoat with a fringe and a big star on the back -

But...

I was given a cow-girl skirt!!!

Devastation. 

This little tomboy wanted buckskin trousers.  She would never ever ever forgive her mother...

PS>   I forgave Mum about an hour later...

PPS   Gumboots got that name in 1800s New Zealand because of our pioneer gum-diggers.