Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Thrifty Boots

I looked for snow boots for Ben in a desultory way and then, suddenly, we had a surprise December snowstorm and Ben still didn't have boots. Fresh air is mandatory at our house. What to do?

I hazily recalled something my mom did when I was a kid. So I put a pair of socks on Ben, pulled plastic bags over his socks under his snowsuit, put on another pair of socks and then his rain boots (the very cool ones from Paris!). He stayed dry if not very warm.



My dad grew up in a big farming family with no money to spare for snow gear. Dad told me he used to wrap burlap around his legs and tie it with baler twine before hogging around in the snow. My mom thought that was too Valley Forge for her style; I was thinking Russian peasant. Ben did not look that peculiar, and fortunately, I hit ebay with determination and his new snow boots came in the mail today.

3 comments:

Shasta said...

Boots from Paris?! What's the story? (they ARE darling)

Margo said...

Baby present to Evie from former employers who loved to travel in Europe!

Anonymous said...

I remember the snowstorm of '77 (bones creak here) when we were living in IN. We wore the kind of boots that go over your shoes. Mom put bread bags on our shoes to make them slide in the boots better. Then we had towels tied around our legs with baler twine to keep the snow out of our boot tops. We also had towels tied around our faces so we didn't loose our little noses to the below-zero windchill. Mom says that all that rigamarole of dressing was better than two little kids in the house for weeks on end.

Rebecca