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Back in the day, the mountain plateaus of the Idaho panhandle were mostly populated by folks that worked in the timber industry. What day was that, you ask? The mid 60s. When these folks were harvesting trees, they wore stuurdy mid-calf boots called calks but pronounced 'corks'. One wonders how the 'r' got into the act. Scads of college students worked for the Forest Service during the summers back then, including myself. We all had to buy a pair of calked boots before we could start working in the forest.
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Chippewa and Buffalo were the 2 most popular brands of 'calks' and they weren't cheap. We're talking hobnailed boots here, with spikes sticking out of the soles about a half inch. Imagine what those boots would do to any type of flooring: vinyl, wood, carpet, whatever, they'd rip em up in short order. That's why the NO CALKS signs were posted at every entrance to every FS building.
I was working in the FS warehouse one day, noticed this pile of NO CALKS signs, decided to liberate one and take it home for a souvenir. To quote the great comedian, Flip Wilson, "The devil made me do it."
