I've owned these boots longer than I've owned anything else in my life.

I got them for Christmas when I was 13 -- well over half my life ago. I remember putting on my wool socks, getting ready to go ice fishing with my brother, when my mom said, "Wait," and retrieved a box from her bedroom. Christmas wasn't for another week yet, but she said I could really use this present right away. And when I opened the box, I was actually really excited. When it's -10 degrees and you're sitting on a bucket on the middle of a lake, there's nothing worse than wearing Asics Tigers.

To put things in perspective, I also got a kitten that year. The kitten grew into a cat, which lived to a ripe old age and then died. But I still have, and still use, the boots.

Back then they were way too big for me of course, purchased large to accomodate my growth and so that I could wear one or two pairs of thick socks underneath them. They're still too big. I think I stopped growing when I was 14, when I reached a hair's width shy of six feet tall. I've had plenty of opportunities to get a new pair, one that fits me better, but I never have and I doubt that I ever will, unless I have to.

Cold and snow aren't so bad if you're prepared for them. If you're unprepared for them (e.g. you drive a beat-up Ford Escort and live at the top of a hill on a street the city doesn't like to plow), well, then life can get complicated. Whenever I pull on these boots, I feel like I'm at least a little bit prepared for winter. My car may end up in someone's yard, and maybe my hands will get cold and my face will get covered in snotsicles. But my feet will be more than fine, and that's a good thing to know.

*For non-Duluthians: Sam Cook is a local outdoors writer. His writing however, unlike mine, always has a point.