Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old references?

Subject: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old references?
From: Joybell
Date: 28 Jun 08 - 07:18 PM

I'm interested in old examples of the wearing of specifically
"one boot and one shoe". Writen refereces regarding the interpretation would also be welcome.
Does anyone have access to the Stith-Thompson index? Is it there?

I don't need any more examples from the 19th century character "Billy Barlow". (That's where I started).

I'm wondering about a connection with Fools or tricksters. Maybe wandering types.
Is there a character in folklore?
Mummers plays?
Wanderers like Woden?
More examples from the art world?
Clown-types?

Here's what I have so far (apart from my starting character):
Some pictures of "The Fool" Tarot card.
Two paintings by Hieronymus Bosch -- "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" and "The Vagabond".

No reason for this really. Just the trail I'm on at the moment.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old reference
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 03:26 PM

Joy,
Not in Stith Thompson as far as I can see.
Rather vague I'm afraid, but I did hear of it in relation to kicking matches in the north of England when two men would face each other with their hands on each others shoulders and take turns at kicking the other's shins.
The contestants would wear clogs shod with steel hoops, but in cases where the floors were flagged, in order not to unbalance, they would only wear one clog and shoe on the (non-combatant) other foot.
The practice was explained to me by a friend who recorded a story from a man in Bolton, in Lancashire, but I don't know whether it was an individual case or general practice.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old references?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 04:42 PM

It was quite common at one time for workers to buy boots second-hand and singly. Patrick McGill's autobiographical novel "Children of the Dead End" (about Irish navvies in Scotland before WW1) mentions it several times - they were called "subs". It seems from what he wrote that virtually all the itinerant workers of that period had odd footwear.

Subject: RE: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old references?
From: Joybell
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 06:12 PM

Thank you Jim and Jack.
I'm grateful for any references even if they turn out to be unconnected.
Thanks for looking up the Stith Thompson index Jim.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old references?
From: Joybell
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 06:15 PM

One of the strange things about the pictures I've mentioned is that the odd footwear on the fools, and also on the Bosch characters, seems to be deliberate. The boots and shoes look new.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old references?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 07:19 PM

One: Saw an interesting thing once on footwear, and how we should really not be buying shoes by the pair, as our feet are not the same. It was mostly about how the military, should they shoe individual feet instead of individual soldiers, would save a huge amount on fewer foot problems.
Two: what about the Vancouver feet?

Subject: RE: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old references?
From: Nerd
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 11:29 PM

This is not very old, and may not help at all...but I will mention it. In an old episode of the American TV show All in the Family, Archie Bunker remembers that as a child he had to go to school once wearing one shoe and one boot. The other kids taunted him by chanting "Tutti Frutti, here comes shoe-bootie."

Honest. I am not making this up.

Subject: RE: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old references?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 04:14 AM

Presumably they got it from London, then - "All in the Family" didn't have any original material that wasn't in "Till Death Do Us Part", did it?

Subject: RE: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old references?
From: Trevor
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 07:39 AM

My Dad used to have a riddle of which he was very proud. "What's boots without shoes?" he would ask. I never understood until much his answer, which was "boots, of course". His father used to "catch him out with it as well" he used to tell me.

Incidentally, one time when Helen had an early start for work and dressed with the light off so she wouldn't disturb me, and was still half asleep herself, she had to spend the whole day wearing one boot and one shoe.

Subject: RE: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old references?
From: Joybell
Date: 01 Jul 08 - 05:54 AM

Hmm. Thanks everyone. The Vancouver feet? Have to look that one up.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old references?
From: Joybell
Date: 01 Jul 08 - 06:00 AM

Ah, the Vancouver feet. Strange thing. All in running shoes. No boots though.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old references?
From: Rumncoke
Date: 01 Jul 08 - 08:24 AM

At one time French soldiers were issued with three boots - they were not left and right but just generally foot shaped, and they were suposed to swap them regularly to give even wear on all three.

I've never come across shoe/boot mixtures though, or if I have I never realised.

Subject: RE: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old reference
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 06:00 AM

'The Boot and Shoe' was a popular name for inns and public houses in the North of England in the 18th and early 19th century. The original signs showed a horseshoe suspended over a boot, to indicate that the premises welcomed both pedestrians and riders, but in some places this became a clog and a boot or a boot and a shoe - presumably when the significance was lost.
All this has nothing to do with what you're seeking, but it's amazing what you find when you start looking.
As a footnote (oh dear) - have scoured Hones Every Day, Table and Year Books, Chambers Book of Days, Brand's Popular Antiquities, The Gentleman's Magazine.... et al - nowt!!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Folklore: One Boot and one shoe. Old references?
From: Joybell
Date: 04 Jul 08 - 05:38 AM

Thanks Jim. Hmmm. Maybe there is a lost connection with the public houses. Thank you for all the other searching. It's a hard one to pin down.
Cheers, Joy