She had sat down on the floor of the back lobby, the better to pull off the old socks she wore inside her boots, and at a kind of gulping sound from Betsy, she turned her head.
Stormy Springtime
Betty Neels never identifies them as wellies but of course they are.
Wellies:
The Wellington boot, also known as rubber-boots, wellies, topboots, gumboots, or rainboots are a type of boot based upon leather Hessian boots...
Once again, England has us beat hollow for simple atmospherics. It's become very posh to call them Wellingtons in the Pacific Northwest (very posh to use the word posh, come to that).
I grew up calling them rubber boots or rain boots and I suppose they were perfect for mucking about in the garden in. I was not posh enough own a pair of wellies--or rubber boots for that matter--And how I wanted them--only second to Donna Summer inspired rainbow wedge heels...Is my childhood neurosis communicating itself? Down boy!
We bought Spencer van Voorhees (#3) some green froggy wellies a few years ago. I was pregnant with the fourth and they were super handy because I didn't have to bend over and lace them up. He wore those and his reversible Batman/Superman cape every day for 6 months. By the end I had ceased making eye contact with the mommies at the bus stop.
Of course, Target has some Liberty print ones. You may fight out the slummy and un-slummyness among yourselves.
And no mention of Wellington would be complete without Napoleon getting second billing. Which brings me to ABBA...My sister Bettys taught me well.
You would think that rain boots would be de rigueur in the rainy Pacific Northwest...but despite having a variety of red rubber rain boots during my childhood, we never wore them in the rain. The only time we donned those rain boots was to play in the snow. Unfortunately even though they were moisture proof, the ones we had had no insulation - they were just a single layer of red rubber/vinyl/plastic...with an elastic cord to close the top (which was always AWOL - so we used rubberbands instead). To make them into snow boots, we put on a pair or two of socks, an empty bread bag (the kind a loaf comes in), another pair or two of socks, and if we were lucky, another bread bag. Voila. Oregon snow boots circa 1970.
ReplyDeleteWhen Betty Ross and I got married in North Yorkshire, we hired a wonderful photographer. We had our "crone of honor" (she didn't like "matron" for some reason) with us, and we got to see all of Damian's albums from prior weddings. One couple had also picked Fountains Abbey; there was a wonderful photo of her holding up her wedding dress to show off her yellow & white floral wellies!
ReplyDeleteThis was a clue, so Lucy and I made sure we had color coordinated wellies for the day. As it was late April (a date picked to accommodate Lucy's kids' school holiday), we knew it might rain, but at the very least the ground might be mucky.
I did get the expensive dyed-to-match shoes (why are those always the most uncomfortable pair of shoes you will ever own?), but as soon as I could, switched to the wellies (mine were green & blue stripes) and never took those off. They were comfy!
Here's a photo that shows our wellies.
The English word for rain overshoes is one of my favourite words: galoshes. Gee golly gosh, I must go and buy some galoshes so that I can slosh about in the rain. Not the same as Wellies, but galoshly related, surely?
ReplyDeleteGaloshes. Back in the 80's, they were sold at Canadian shoe stores. And business people wore them over their dress shoes on wet or sloshy snow days.
Deleteℬetty Anonymous