| Love Those Rubber Boots Man 31 |
In University, I found that the 'cool' attitude was wearing away as people were more mature. I began to wear my boots to class again and nobody cared. During this time, I went back to the shoe shop to get another pair of those great Uniroyal boots that I loved, and was sadly informed by the shopkeeper that they were no longer being made. I was very disappointed. I felt that a friend had died! However, he told me that new Canadian-made rubber boots were now available and I was delighted to see that they looked very similar to the Uniroyal boot. I purchased a pair of the new ones, which were made in a factory in Hamilton, Ontario, not far from Toronto. I had quickly found a new friend. Something new had been born out of the death of another! Lots and lots of people began wearing these new Canadian boots which still had the shiny black rubber but now with only an orange-red sole. The orange-red trim on the top was now black. |
| Later that year, I wrote a letter to the manufacturer of those new boots and told him how pleased I was with them. The manager wrote back and offered me a tour of their factory!!! I went straight down and got to see those lovely new boots being made! The rubber smell in the factory was like music to my nose! He showed me plans for a new design with a green sole and I thought it looked great! The new black boots with the green soles came on to the market a year or so later and became very popular. I have a pair of both the red sole and the green sole ones and I wear them alternatively. |
More recently, I moved to an eastern suburb of Toronto, where there is a big park with a stream running through it. There is also a construction area next to it that used to be an old quarry. It is very muddy. Each evening, especially when it rained, I would put on my new rubber boots and have a good wade through the mud. I still do that once in a while. I find that I look forward to rainy days to go out walking in my boots and to look at other people's boots. Rubber boots are still very popular in Canada, particularly with children and adults. Teenagers are a lost cause at the moment. However, I did see a boy about 14 or 15 years old in the country wearing them recently and I was filled with joy at the prospect of the boots possibly coming back into popularity among this age group. Nevertheless, they remain strongly popular among pre-teen children and adults. People wear them a lot to go up north to their cottages, going fishing, walking in heavy rain and mud and when going camping. Workmen building houses in new muddy estates wear them and workmen pouring wet cement or working on the sewers, wear them, and a lot of people wear them while gardening. |
Children, of course, still wear them in bid numbers, most getting new ones every Spring. My friend Ron, has a pair of red soled rubber boots and his nephews aged 10 and 13 have them. Both red and green soles are now quite common in Canada. I often go to fishing derbies, held in the late Spring, north of Toronto, in order to see the many pairs of rubber boots that are worn (wearing mine also, ofcourse!). Canada is mostly a rural country and most of the people are the outdoors-type, so black rubber boots (wellies) are very commonplace. |
Rubber Wellington boots are here to stay - as long as they remain popular among pre-teen children, as they are, I am sure that at least some of them will grow up to continue to wear them as adults. |
| continuing our story from Toronto |
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A group of rubber boots enjoying themselves in the water near Toronto |