310. MIALA BABA KOGUTA
A little mascot rooster tucked into a rather weathered old boot

"Miala baba koguta" is a famous old Polish folk tune - and one of the few that Pete can actually sing along with me on! It means "the old lady had a rooster", and the next line is "wsadzila go do buta" (translation: "so she put it in her boot!").

It always seemed like such a whimsical song to us, but now has even more special meaning. In addition to my wearing out dozens of boots (and donating dozens more with still plenty of trail tread left on them!:-) by backpacking well over 25 thousand miles of long distance trails in the 80s and 90s (fortunately the Hi-Tec company supplied many of them after my first 10 thousand miles in return for using my name in a bit of advertising!;-), it now seems that I am famous for "crowing" about my finding over 25,000 traditional letterboxes as of 2009 and over 50,000 as of 2015! So, since this "old lady" just happened to find one of those old worn-out boots still kicking around in the garage, I decided to put a cute little plaid rooster that I once bought at the Old Cider Mill near Stowe, Vermont into it, and made "the rooster in a boot" my new mascot! ( thanks to a little suggestion from Ryan that everyone needs a mascot, since people are more apt to remember "advertising gimmicks" than actual accomplishments! ;-)

Anyway, if anyone sees my "mascot" hanging out at a gathering and wants my crude folkloric carving of the rooster, just either congratulate me on my PFX count or sing me "the old lady had a rooster" song - in Polish, if you dare!

"Miala baba koguta, koguta, koguta,
wsadzila go do buta, do buta, hej!

O moj mily kogucie, kogucie, kogucie, kogucie, kogucie, kogucie,
Czy ci dobrze w tym bucie, w tym bucie, w tym bucie, w tym bucie ... jest!?!"

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