A customer came in to have belts made for her three sons. One of them was getting married. She had a specific buckle that she wanted to use for the belts and a style that she had on her own belt. The buckle had been handed down from her mother, and she had the same buckles made for her kids to pass on the tradition.
I posted the belt blanks, and a reader said, “My guess is these are for ranger belts.” I replied that I didn’t know where the buckle came from but would find out.
When the customer came back to pick up the belts, I mentioned that these might be buckles for a ranger belt. I showed her a photo and referenced that ranger belts are popular in the US because of the historical Texas Rangers. She immediately lit up. It turns out that while the belt came from her mother, it was actually a much older tradition, started by her great-great-grandfather, who passed on these buckles to his sons. The family was originally from South Texas.
It was a happy discovery of a small family history detail that was lost and found anew.
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