DC-area teen slang (1957)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, 1 Sep 2005 11:03:51 +0100, Jonathon Green wrote:

>>[...]
>>Also added to the teen dictionary is "fruit boats" (the new colored
>>suede shoes)
>>
>Fruit BOOTS, surely.

So one would think, but the Post article clearly has "fruit boats".
Possibly a typo or mishearing.

HDAS defines "fruit boots" as "men's shoes of any style believed to be
favored by homosexuals" with this first cite:

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1960 D. Hamilton _Death of a Citizen_ 31: Light-colored, low-heeled
pull-on boots with the rough side of the leather showing that are
sometimes known locally as fruit-boots, being the preferred footgear of a
few gentlemen whose virility is subject to question.
-----

Here's a forum post that more closely matches the description given by the
Post:

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http://www.fiftiesweb.net/dcforum/DCForumID1/841.html
A group of us in Cincinnati, Ohio are discussing "fruit boots" and are
wondering if anyone else called them by this name. They were usually black
suede, low cut and laced up the front much like saddle shoes, but also
could be the slip-on variety in leather. Late fifties.
-----

Someone else responds:

-----
We wore "fruit boots" in the mid 50's...St Louis Area.
They were white suede, white laces with red rubber soles.
-----

The shift from the suede shoes of the '50s to the type described in the
HDAS cite is explained here:

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"Throughout the '50s, fruit boots were white tennies or white suede shoes.
Into the '60s, the term became the Beatle boots or any Italian-made
sharp-toed shoes which heightened the so-called effeminization of the
American youth. Since almost everyone wears fruit boots, the viciousness
behind the term is all but lost."
from THE QUEENS' VERNACULAR: A GAY LEXICON by Bruce Rodgers (San
Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1972), pp. 86-87
http://listserv.dom.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind9510&L=STUMPERS-L&P=247099
-----

Nowadays "fruit boots" can often refer to roller blades...

http://google.com/search?q=fruit-boots+roller-blades


--Ben Zimmer