Texas Highways – September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 57

is stored in a file cabinet where it joins similar in-
formation for hundreds of other customers.
I admire the look of boots made of snake skin,
lizard skin, alligator skin, and other exotic hides,
but when it comes down to it, I prefer the stuff cow-
boy boots were originally made of: calf skin and bull hide. I’m an
old soul. I also tend to be pretty conservative when it comes to col-
ors and the stitching on the shafts, but today I break out of tradition.
Armando Jr. produces a roll of bull-hide leather that’s just
a shade lighter than peanut butter. Then I spy a roll of green
French calf skin. A design immediately comes together in my

head: shafts of the green calf skin, with Span-

ish-style 10-row stitching in tan, silver, brown,

and other colors, with the lower part of the

boot made from the bull hide, including a stan-

dard toe bug (the stitching on top of the toes).

A bit of a showy boot for me, but I’ve traveled all this way, and

you only live once.

I take a quick tour of the backshop, where Armando is work-

ing with three other men. “It gets hot as hell back here in the

summer,” Armando Jr. tells me. There’s no air-conditioning. As

fine and expensive as the final product might be, there’s nothing

Henry Camargo, owner

of Camargo’s in Mercedes,

in his shop.