Month: January 2010

By Jack Boardman

When I was a kid during the 50's, they hadn't yet invented wind chill, we just knew it was cold, and the cold was worse when it was windy. Our parents would send us out to play in all but the worst weather and required us to dress for survival. They didn't exactly put it in those terms but that is what they did.

Flannel shirts for the boys, sweaters or long sleeved tee's  for the girls, lined jeans (usually plaid but sometimes a solid color lining) or corduroys, parkas (they were usually green with grey fur around the front of the hood, and the hood had a zipper down the center), wool scarf to cover the nose, lined vinyl mittens with multi-colored elastic wristbands, or knit mittens, caps with ear flaps, or knit stocking caps and finally four-buckle boots for the boys and fur-topped zipper boots for the girls, usually red.

These were not the boots like we have today, they were overshoes that we struggled to put on and take off. Taking them off usually took the shoe underneath right along with it. With us boys, the four bucklers were to be worn un-buckled as keeping them buckled the way we HAD to have them before we went outside, was simply not allowed. They would inevitably fill with snow and cause more than a little discomfort. The best we could do was to scoop as much snow as we could out of the boot before it melted and soaked our shoes and socks. In those days everybody wore overshoes.

My mother’s were made to be worn over high heeled shoes and my father opted for zipper overshoes. His boot zippers always zipped, something that amazes me to this day. As we grew older and went on to junior and senior high school overshoes went from four-bucklers to zipper boots to no boots at all. We grew older—not necessarily smarter. You almost never see overshoes anymore. Certainly you see winter boots but they’re no longer covering shoes, they’re simply boots that must be removed and replaced with shoes. Mostly though, boots are not worn, just cold grip-less shoes.

I wear overshoes. I may be the only one in the Twin City metropolitan area who does. My feet remain warm and dry in the coldest weather and the boots provide traction in the snow (and are not bad on ice). Some twenty or more years ago, my father-in-law gave me a pair of zipper-boots for Christmas—a gag-gift I think. These are the boots I have relied on since to keep my feet warm & dry. Thank you  for the most useful and long lasting gift EVER!