Flash Gordon Boots

I was always crazy about my Aunt Claire*, but when I first met her new husband, I really didn’t like him much at all. Over the years he turned out to be a pretty good guy, and may have been trying too hard to make a good first impression, but to me Francis was big and loud and a little bit frightening to a four-year-old. 

Besides, he wore some strange looking boots. 

As a kid who had never ventured further from Texas than Muskogee, Oklahoma, I had seen lots of cowboy boots and even lace-up combat boots, but Francis wore something you might expect to see on an English fox hunt.

He caught me staring at them and said “What are you looking at?”

“Those are some funny looking boots.” I said, “What kind are they?”

He winked at his wife and said “Why, those are Flash Gordon boots.”

They did look quite a bit like the ones pictured above, but I wasn’t convinced.  Just to be sure, I kicked him in the shin as hard as I could.

He grabbed his leg, and while he hopped around he said some words I had never heard before, not even when my dad busted a knuckle working on the car.

“Big liar!” I yelled at him, “Flash Gordon boots have steel up the front!”

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In looking on-line for a picture to go with this post, I learned that the “steel” in his boots was probably Bakelite.  In an early example of product placement, Union Carbide sponsored ads for plastic in the Flash Gordon comic books.

 

* Totally confused about the correct spelling of my aunt’s name.  I’ve seen it spelled Clare, Clair, and Claire.  I know it was short for Clarene, which could also be spelled correctly with or without an i.  According to one baby-naming website: Claire has 61 variant forms: Ceara, Cearra, Cheeara, Chiara, Ciara, Ciarra, Clair, Claireen,Clairene, Claireta, Clairette, Clairey, Clairice, Clairinda, Clairissa, Clairita, Clairy, Clara,Clarabel, Clarabelle, Clare, Clarene, Claresta, Clareta, Claretta, Clarey, Clari, Claribel,Claribella, Claribelle, Clarice, Clarie, Clarinda, Clarine, Clarisa, Clarissa, Clarisse, Clarita,Claritza, Clarrie, Clarry, Clary, Claryce, Clayre, Clayrette, Clayrice, Clayrinda, Clayrissa,Clerissa, Cliara, Clorinda, Klaire, Klara, Klaretta, Klarissa, Klaryce, Klayre, Kliara, Klyara,Seara and Searra.