I can vividly recollect the smell of the dubbin’ in the boot room at Carlton Outdoor Education Centre in 1983. You don’t know why you’re doing it at that age, you just smear piles of the stuff on to them. I think they were ‘centre boots’ made by Daisy Roots. Worn with enormous red socks that you could almost pull up to your ears.
As you get a bit older and (in my case) your boots become fundamental to your ability to do your job, avoid injury, and in-extremis stay alive, you become expert at caring for and cleaning them.
If your footwear also has to ‘pass muster’ at soldier and officer training in the Army you also become adept at polishing the living shit out of them.
The less care you take of them the sooner they fail. But don’t take too much care of them. And do be bothered to unlace them and do all the nooks and crannies.
There’s something meditative about cleaning them. A bit like when looking at your own body you recollect where and when the scrapes and bumps were acquired.
I moved away from leather boots after leaving the mob and wore fabric mountain boots for 300+ days of the year. However, you can’t jump up and down on fires very long in a fabric boot and the smell and feel of them melting on to your feet isn’t nice (*the rand on leather boots will still crack).
There isn’t enough torsional stability on the ‘keepers boots that i wear when rangering if i need to head to a rescue call-out, so i looked for a solid Vibram soled leather boot. These ‘uns are ‘AKU Tactical KS Schwer 14 GTX Cold Wet Weather Boots’. Apparently the issued winter boot for the Swiss Army. Primaloft and Gote-tex lined. Keep my titanium toe from misbehaving in the cold. £140 used. By ‘used’ i think they were taken out the box and put back in the box.
In my previous career as much as in my current rangering and rescue roles there’s a confidence that comes from your boot staying where you put it regardless of the slope, surface or weather. It also helps if they work well when you’re using ‘Shanks’ Ponies’ to persuade things to open or close !!
A meditative 15 minutes today just waxing them ready for whatever the next few days have in store. The mind drifting back to ‘outdoor ed’ on the North Yorkshire Moors way back when …. the other office staff staring at me like i’m not quite reet …
