Texas Got It Right!. Sam Wyly

I don’t believe we will ever know, nor should we need it

      any longer. They are Houstonians.″ Top: Road signs like this one

      can be found at every entry point to Texas. Above: A sign at the

      George Brown Convention Center in Houston touts the large

      number of quilts being provided for Katrina evacuees.

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      There’s something about the Lone Star State that

      just gets under your skin, no matter where you

      come from or what you believe. If you live here long

      enough, eventually you’re going to stop thinking of

      yourself as a Texan Jew or Christian or Muslim and

      start thinking of yourself as a Jewish or Christian

      or Muslim Texan. And it won’t be long before you

      go out and buy yourself a pair of cowboy boots.

      They are the reigning symbol of Texas culture for

      good reason: Cowboy boots are how we tell the

      world we’re Texan, and they’re also how we express

      ourselves. Walk into almost any boot store in the

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      state and you’ll see hundreds if not thousands of

      designs and patterns and styles—and if you don’t

      see something you like, there are plenty of custom

      boot makers who will craft a pair just for you. It’s

      only appropriate that the father of custom cowboy

      boot–making in Texas was an immigrant, a Sicilian

      named Salvatore Lucchese. He and his sons and

      grandsons have made boots by hand in their El Paso

      workshop for everyone from Teddy Roosevelt to

      LBJ to Francisco Madero, the leader of the revolu-

      tion that brought democracy to Mexico in the early

      20th century.

      Opposite: Lucchese released 125 pairs

      of these special boots, which retailed for

      $12,500, to celebrate its 125th anniver-

      sary. This page, clockwise from top: The

      Alamo Plaza Lucchese Building in the

      1940s; these custom-made cowboy

      boots, created by a craftsman at the

      Justin Boot Co., were featured on the

      cover of 2007’s Lone Stars of David: The

      Jews of Texas; Zsa Zsa Gabor gets fitted

      for Lucchese boots in the 1950s.

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