Tag: winter weather

7/2017

Galoshes; dickersons, overshoes, 4 buckle artics, Russian valenki or Qubecian claques.

You may or may not remember your mother yelling at you to put on your galoshes before you leave the house in inclement weather (I pretty much presume nobody does and I understand).  In my day, this was a common warning from parents, teachers and those given the responsibility of caring for children.  Actually, the concern was not for the children.

We’ve had a wet year, locally.  So, why do I not hear of galoshes?  Well, there is a reason.

The weather has not changed, regardless of what you hear from Hillery, Al and the like.  It is either wet or dry.  It has been forever and will be forever.  So in times past, people have looked for ways to deal with the weather, something about which they have no control.

Galoshes were a device to protect a valuable piece of clothing.

Back in the day, shoes were made of leather, they were expensive, semi-custom made and labor intensive. Leather is a very hardy material that resists abrasion and impact, protecting the feet from injury.  But if repeatedly exposed to extremes of heat and wetness, will shrink, crack and fall apart.  Those without galoshes would have all leather shoes that suffered the ravages of weather, thereby becoming useless.  Shoes back then were expensive and expected to last for several years, even generations.  They were protected and rather than being used relentlessly, were often protected leaving the children to go barefoot in weather unfathomable today.  Things have changed.

So, somebody (an unknown Scandinavian inventor of the wooden shoe, Radley, Rickman or somebody) invented shoe covers that would delay this.

Goodyear and Candee found that rubber would prevent wet damage.  And vulcanized rubber would better withstand the drying and cracking that natural rubber succumbed to.  It was easier to manufacture in a variety of sizes and relatively inexpensive.

Now, kids/we wear %100 nylon (used generically here to refer to the multitude of modern plastic fabrics), and other water resistant/porous compounds that if they become wet will dry in minutes.  Materials that supposedly are tougher, more weather resistant, cheaper, kinder and more stylish than leather.

So as parents and grandparents we send our children out into inclement weather knowing that their feet will become wet, but knowing that their precious feet will dry, eventually.  Or, we don’t send them out at all.

Today, galoshes refers to a variety of shoe coverings, not that the exact term is always used. (1)  The modern equivalent of galoshes are;

nylon and synthetic rubbers that cause all sorts of skin problems in factory workers exposed to wet environments of a variety of sources;

boots that cowboys think look so cool;

steel toed work boots that industrial workers have to wear to satisfy OSHA;

overshoes that protect slaughterhouse workers from the blood and guts of their work;

and the dainty nylon-ish paper covers I wear to protect my shoes (I guaranty are not $300 Nikes) from the blood and guts of … .

From your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave, with similar thoughts on synthetic clothing for warmth and dryness.

1.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galoshes)

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