Thanksgiving excerpt from “Waiting for Elizabeth”

The first story posted from my divorce & remarriage book, Waiting for Elizabeth, before its publication in 2015. Originally it was a  preview now it’s a Thanksgiving excerpt. Enjoy. BB

“Later that month I went back to LA to see Mom for Thanksgiving. [2002]

“My everyday, rough-out Acme cowboy boots were sorely in need of replacement and my favorite boot shop was the Country General Store in Van Nuys, which is where I’d bought the ones in question. So my first day in LA I got Lucy into the car and drove out to the store. As always they recognized me. Even though it was only every two or three years I was a regular customer. I said I wanted to replace the boots I was wearing with a pair just like them but, of course that model wasn’t made any more. Argghhh! Happens with damn near everything. As soon as you find something you really like they stop making it. Anyhow the guy brought in three pairs of rough-outs. I tried on both Acmes which were $175 and they were okay, not as good as the ones I had but wearable. Then I tried on the third pair. They were unbelievably comfortable, fit like kid gloves. I asked the price: $225. That was over my budget but I kept walking around in them and asked if they were Acmes. The answer was no.

“They were Luccheses.

“Lucchese boots? Not possible. They were primarily custom made and the cheapest “off the rack” Luccheses I’d ever seen were upwards of $600. I had always wanted a pair. They were the Rolls Royce of boots. It seems that about a year earlier Lucchese had quietly begun making several models for the consumer trade. I now wish I’d bought two pairs but I did have my first Luccheses and I damn near slept in them for the next month.

BootsTwelve years later I still wear ‘em.

“The year before when I was in LA I had dinner with Gary Mizel’s sister Vicki – who I’d met during the Video Casting Source period. … For dessert Vicki had served the most outrageous apple pie I’d ever tasted in my entire life. I wanted to get one for Thanksgiving dinner and she told me where it came from – Urth Cafe in West Hollywood. She also said that one had to order the pie a week or more in advance. The thing cost forty-five dollars. That may seem a lot for a pie but let me tell you it was worth every penny. First of all it must have weighed five or six pounds. It was about fourteen inches in diameter and over three inches deep. The crust was flakey and did, indeed, melt in your mouth and it was filled with crisp apple slices cooked in butter and brown sugar as well as with walnuts and some other nuts.

Urth Apple Pie

“It was unbelievable and after five people had a slice there was still enough left for several more meals. Damn, I think I’ll look it up and order one right now. Probably costs seventy-five bucks by this time. Anyhow all I remember about that Thanksgiving is that Mom really really loved that pie.”

Click here to read Waiting for Elizabeth.

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