This is from “Charles” by Shirley Jackson. It was published about 1949 to give some context. It’s a fictional tale about a little boy starting Kindergarten.
“‘He’s bigger than me,’ Lauerie said, ‘And he doesn’t have any rubbers and he doesn’t ever wear a jacket.’”
Only thing I can think about is “erasers,” but that seems to not fit logically with “jacket.” I though maybe rubber (i.e. rain/snow) boots? Anyone more familiar with 1949 slang that can help me out?
It’s the rain/snow boots.
Galoshes/Wellingtons.
Rubber overshoes aka galoshes - on rainy/snowy days you put them over your shoes for protection, and take them off when you get inside,
When I grew up, “rubbers” did not reference gum erasers (as in Britain) or condoms, but a particular form of outerwear footgear, made of soft black rubber, that fitted snugly over one’s shoes, and, in contrast to galoshes or overshoes, stopped short of the ankle, covering precisely the same body area as ‘normal’ shoes.
Like Polycarp I knew only that one definition of rubbers when I was growing up.
I am appalled to read that it is so old that it has to be guessed at, even in context.
So not groovy, cats.
“1949 slang,” indeed! Yes, rubbers have gone the way of the rumble seat.
Not at all. I have a pair that I bought last year, but they were sold under the brand name of Totes and they don’t call them “rubbers.” But they are still around, unlike the rumble seat.
Rubbers. You can’t say it anymore without a few sly winks in your direction. Even if you are talking about putting them over your shoes!
Later generations also wrecked another perfectly good word for footwear - thongs.
Heh.
I owned a pair as a kid in the 1960’s. They weren’t boots. They were shoe-sized rubber covers that slipped tightly over your nice shoes so they wouldn’t get spoiled in the rain.
Dames at Sea, a musical parody off-Broadway in the 1960’s, made use of the ambiguousness of the word in a tongue-in-cheek song. The heroine laments that her man has gone and it’s “raining in her heart”…
“Where’s my umbrella?
Where are my rubbers?
I need them to keep me safe and warm…”
Always gets a few snickers from the audience.
In my childhood (early 50’s), rubbers were slip-on rubber overshoes, as described by Polycarp and The Hamster King. Typical examples. Galoshes were boot-high and fastened with several buckles.
In Googling, I see the term “rubbers” applied to what we only ever called galoshes, and “galoshes” applied to what we only ever called rubbers.
Rubbers like the ones I wore as a kid.
And if you were one of the “cool” kids, you wore them with the buckles unfastened.
Check out this scene from Horsefeathers, starting about 2:35 in.
Even time Groucho bursts into the room he opens his umbrella and takes off his rubbers. I’m pretty sure that was meant to be a dirty visual pun. He also takes off his hat, another slang term for condom. He may be doing too many things simultaneously to have it make sense as a metaphor, but that may just be a disguise. And it’s a typical frenetic Marx Brothers scene where Harpo and Chico are doing schtick that also makes no sense (unless there is underground 30s slang for ice that I’m not aware of).
People round here call my Hunter boots ‘rubbers’.
I also have a pair of the real kind, soft flexible black leather pull-on galoshes.
1949 to give context? They were still common when I was a little kid in the early 80s! God, I hated those things.
I seem to recall a Reader’s Digest joke from many years ago.
A sign seen in the waiting room of a paediatrician :- “Thank you for removing your rubbers”.
I’ve heard of rubber for eraser but I’ve never heard rubbers (plural form) for eraser.
I’ve heard of rubbers meaning boots or such.
I don’t think it was very common for condoms until the 80s when AIDS took over and it became important to speak about it in the open.
I recall in the book A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, the author Betty Smith makes a vague reference about Sissy working in a factory where they made rubber goods who’s use was spoken in hush tones. (Or something like that), and I read the book in the 70s and even though I was a teen, I didn’t get that reference till I reread the book years later.
And finally, a clarification: It’s not entirely fictional: “Charles,” first published as an essay in Mademoiselle magazine in 1948, is the first chapter from Jackson’s Life Among the Savages, a highly embellished (and totally hilarious) account of her experiences as a sophisticated small-town Vermont housewife with four precocious, eccentric children. I cannot recommend it highly enough, especially when followed by Raising Demons. I discovered these books more than 30 years ago and they have never lost their charm.
If I could write like anybody, I would write like Shirley Jackson.
ETA: Laurie is Jackson’s son, Laurence; there’s also the extraordinarily bizarre Jannie (Joanne), whose imaginary friends rule the household, Sally (Sarah), and Barry.
