Comment reeking in "old fogey-ness".
Once somebody said to one of my sisters: Your mama wears combat boots!
she replied, "Yeah, but how did you know?"
This left the taunting person dumb-struck.
I always had a hard time figuring out why this was such an insult. I suppose of a destitute woman in WWII traded her virtue for a good pair of shoes, combat boots if necessary, that might be the origin of the negative connotations of the phrase.
However, in our family, hiking boots were subject to loving care, with frequent treatments with boot grease/wax to keep them supple and uncracked and more water proof. We would sit around in front of the fire place in the winter, waxing the boots, and leave them to warm so the was would soak into the leather better as they sat on the warm hearth. We spent several vacations in Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior, and Quetico/Boundry Waters national whatever in Minn/Quetico. Those were beautiful places, and I would love to go back some day, particularly to Isle Royale, which has moose, wolves, and fjords. I don't know if it's still true, but the lake superior water was so clean we would drink it straight from the lake, without any treatment. Contrasted to water on the streams, that had a dangerous parasite that balanced the moose and wolf population in a strange three-sided triange, where you could unwittingly suffer the part of the moose or the wolf if you drank the water. Anyway, fond memories related to hiking boots. So while you're waiting for your clothes to get out of the drier, wax those boots, too.
Whew! you didn't think I'd be able to curve my tangential thoughts back to the topic, did you?
}:-D
