Belts from the Attic

During the Corona Virus lockdown, I did various jobs about the house. One was to sort out the attic. I found an old box that I had forgotten about entirely. It contained old clothes that had belonged to my father, but which were too small for me to fit into. They were too worn for sending to a charity shop, and I could never bring myself to throw them away as they were all top quality gear. So they went into the attic. I'll be posting about some of these as we go along.

Among the various items in the box were a number of belts. My father had loved fancy accessories - he often wore a cravat rather than a tie with his suit. He liked to wear fancy belts as well. These are all quite wide so they don't fit through the belt loops of many of my trousers. Did trousers have wider belt loops 50 years ago? I don't know. What I do know is that my father was slimmer than I am, so most of these don't fit me. Never mind, let's have a look at them. 

 We'll start with this one. It is the only one that I can get to do up on me, so I'm modelling this one for you. On the back my father has written "Albuquerque 1970". My father did a lot of business out in the USA. Sometimes when he went he would add a week or two to the trip to do some sightseeing. I remember a few bits and pieces. For instance I recall that this belt came from some Navajo craft store that he visited. I remember it because he bought me a wallet with the same sort of embossed and painted decoration on it. It was the first grown-up wallet I ever had, and I used it until it fell to pieces, so it was good to rediscover this belt. 

My father said that when he went into the travel agent in New York to book his flight to Albuquerque, the man there stared at him in surprise and said "I hope you have a good reason for going. There's nothing there!"

Anyway, a cracking leather belt. The leather is raw on the back and is rather stiff with age. But I like the design, so I'm wearing it as I write this.

The rest of the belts are too small for me, so they are being modelled by my teenage daughter. This one is very soft, supple leather. On the back is written "Tombstone", but there is no date. My father loved old Western movies. I think I watched pretty much every John Wayne western that came on TV with him. I know that he went to Tombstone once to visit the site of the Gunfight at the OK Coral - the subject of several movies. I suppose he bought this one then. But to be honest, I don't recall this belt at all. 

 Now, I remember this belt very well as my father wore it a lot. Dad brought it back from one of his business trips to the  USA - but I can't recall where or when he bought it. There is nothing written on it, so I can't tell you anything about it. However, my daughter likes it, so she has kept it and is wearing it as a fashion item. How the world turns!

Now this belt I do not remember at all. And although it is old and stiff with age it does not look as if it has been worn at all. Maybe my father did not wear it much. On the back is written "Cheyenne Frontier 1974". I think this must mean it was bought at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo festival that is held in the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming, every July. I suppose the wild horses on the buckle would fit in with that. 

I remember that my father told me of an event that happened one time he was in a Western cowboy town - maybe it was in Cheyenne. Dad was driving around in a hired car trying to find a particular address but could not do so. He saw a policeman standing in the middle of a road junction directing traffic. He pulled up and asked the policeman for directions. 

"Gee", replied the cop. "Are you British?"

My father said he was. 

"Do you know a place called Norwich?" asked the cop. "I was stationed on an air base near there during war."

Now, as it happens, my father was in RAF Bomber Command during the war. Soon he and the policeman were chatting away about the war, bombing Germany and all sorts of nostalgia. Suddenly the cop stopped talking and looked around. 

"You'd better get a move on," he said to my father. "We've got ourselves a small problem." My father looked around to see that all four streets leading to the road junction were snarled up with enormous traffic jams. What amazed him was that nobody was hooting or shouting or anything. They were all just sitting there in their cars and trucks patiently waiting for the policeman to stop talking to my dad. The cop gave my dad directions where to go and off drove my dad. 

Now this last belt is very definitely not from the USA. There is nothing written on it at all and I can't say that I remember it. It does look like a Carnaby Street item from the 1960s or 1970s to me. But who knows.

Anyway, those are all the belts that were in the box in the attic. But there were other clothing items stashed away - I'll write about them later.

You can find out more about Albuquerque HERE
You can learn more about the Navajo, including their arts & crafts, HERE
You can find out more about the Gunfight at the OK Coral HERE
You can find out more about Cheyenne Frontier Days HERE
You can find out more about Carnaby Street HERE