Her feet were petite and supple with high, smooth arches and shell-pink nails adorning rosebud toes. Her ankles were slender, the bones seemingly as fragile as snow during a chinook.
The sweep of her calves was a symphony of shape, until the eye reached that note of discord, that angry blemish encircling the upper calf.
Yes, it was a boot ring.
Farm women know it all too well, that painful red friction burn created when the top of a rubber boot rubs repeatedly against the leg.
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The scourge typically begins in spring, when snow melt and crowds of cattle milling about in small spaces combine to create rubber boot conditions. Then, as boot wear increases, so does the intensity of the boot ring.
There are few ways to avoid the chafing that leaves its mark.
Tall socks? Walk a mile in rubber boots and a sock of any length will gradually roll itself into a painful knot under the heel.
Long underwear? Too warm for spring.
Tucking the pant leg inside the boot? Moderately effective, except boot rings are traded for the prickles and itches of whatever hay, straw and other detritus drops inside. Mice, for instance. But that’s another story.
Indeed, there are times when the heartbreak of boot ring is a small price to pay for protection against the springtime ooze and slop that are common in cattle-frequented areas.
Some years ago, in times when possessions were far less disposable than they seem to be today, a pair of leak-free rubber boots was a highly prized wardrobe item on the farm.
One could slip into them quickly for an errand in barn or garden. Strategically placed boots allowed one to leap into the footwear and get a head start when chasing cattle off the lawn.
That’s when the wearer could make that distinctive skroink! skroink! noise that heels make when they rub against the inside of boots – the noise that signifies a hole is quickly wearing in the heel of a sock.
A plastic bag on a foot inside a rubber boot could temporarily delay the need to replace a leaky unit. But get too deep in the muck and mire of outrageous fortune, and the boots would have to be retired. Try as one might to rinse and dry a rubber boot, dampness would persist and stink would ensue.
Boot ring does fade, in time, else we would not dare bring this rural affliction to light. We can consider it to be yet another sign of spring.
