Newfie June - Vamps!?




The severe cold snap we are experiencing right now has caused me to have cold feet on a few occasions. I was waiting for a bus, to take me home from work, yesterday and the bottoms of my poor feet were frozen. It reminded me of when I was a kid and would stay out on the backyard rink too long in my skates. You know, your toes would get so cold that you could hardly feel them and once they started to "thaw" you would cry with pain. Well, yesterday, my feet were almost that cold and it made me wish I had a pair of vamps.

To those of you out there who are not from Newfoundland, the word vamp conjures up images of ladies in skimpy attire, makeup smeared on as if applied with a paint roller.

Have I got news for you! The word vamp is actually an old English word for the part of a sock or stocking that covers the foot. Newfoundlanders learned early on that a nice thick woolen vamp, worn over your socks, inside a rubber boot, etc. not only added great insulation (and thereby warmth), but also kept the boot from chafing. Of course vamps are versatile and can also be worn around the house as slippers.

I recall that the family vamps, usually hand-knit by my mother, were kept hung on a basement clothesline. There they stayed warm, dry and accessible for any time they were needed. My father always wore a pair inside his long rubbers (waders) when he went troutin' or inside his heavy boots that he wore when he tramped along the cliffs at Bauline Line when he went terrin' (hunting seabirds). The boots were always a size or so too big for you just so you could still fit your feet in, even after donning one or two pairs of vamps.

I was raised in St. John's by parents who were born and raised "in the bay" (the outports). This gave me some degree of discomfort in my school years. I spoke with a "townie" accent but used "bayman" words and terms.

You think that bullying in schools only started in the last few years? …Wrong! I was teased unmercifully when I used words that were common around my home. Of course, one of these words was "vamps".

I was in grade eight when I became conscious of boys…especially a certain boy. I developed a big crush on this boy who was from a fairly wealthy St. John's family. Of course, he didn't know I existed but I wanted to try to impress him. That year, for Christmas, I begged for a pair of sealskin boots (mukluk style). They were the fashion then and I thought if I could just get a pair, I would be noticed.

At Christmas, I got my wish and received my lovely mukluks. I loved them. They were beautiful boots. There was a flaw, though. Not in the boots, mind you, but you see, they were designed to be worn in the north where it was so cold that the snow did not get slushy and wet. In the north mukluks were the warmest thing you could wear but St. John's is on the south east coast of the island. It does get cold in the winter there, but the temperatures are tempered by the warm Gulf Stream that flows just to the east of the island. As a result, the snow that falls is usually heavy, wet snow and on days when the temperature warms at all, that snow gets very slushy. My lovely boots would then leak like a sieve. As soon as I learned about this tendency to end up with wet and cold feet whenever I wore my new boots, my mother had an idea. She knit me some new, thick, two-tone brown vamps. She was sure that would solve my problem.

The first day of school, after the Christmas vacation, I put on my new boots. Of course, my mother would not hear of letting me out the door without my new vamps on. I didn't really want to wear them but capitulated. Off I go, thinking I was quite a dandy in these stylish fur boots.

At the end of the day, I donned my boots and started walking home. Just down the street from the school, I heard my name being called. I turned to look and there was himself calling out and telling me to wait up. He caught up to me and started walking home beside me. I was tongue-tied and didn't know what to say. So, he commented that he liked my new boots. (Yes!! I knew he'd notice me if I had these great boots, I thought.) So, he asked me how I liked them. I was so intimidated by his presence and I wanted him to think I was friendly, so I blurted out some answer that they looked great but leaked like baskets in wet snow. Of course I couldn't stop there, so I proceeded to tell him that my feet were getting so cold in them that my mother had to knit a pair of vamps for me to wear inside them. He just about stopped dead in his tracks. Vamps? What were vamps? You would have sworn I had spoken in Greek, such was his reaction of confusion. I tried to explain, but I had lost him. For whatever reason, he was no longer interested and quickly excused himself to run ahead and catch up with some other kids walking ahead of us.

I was heartbroken and, in my thirteen year old mind, the fault was that I had mentioned the stupid vamps that no one in the world knew about except my old fashioned family, etc., etc. So, I never wore vamps again, no matter what. Now that I think about it, I don't think I ever have worn them again. As it happened, my mother was wrong that the vamps would help, anyway. Once vamps get wet, your feet still get cold.

That does not mean they were not useful and actually worked quite well, as long as they didn't get wet.

It surprised me, when I moved to the prairies, that farmers didn't have such a thing. Vamps did work and made perfect sense. The bottom of your foot was what felt the cold the most, so why cover your whole lower leg with two full pairs of socks. One pair is plenty with a vamp pulled over the bottom of the feet.

Maybe I should start a new trend out West here. Prairie vamps. What do you think? Would you buy a pair? Beats the heck out of Prairie Oysters, don't you think?

Stay warm…Newfie June.

© Newfie June




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