Electric shoe warmers anyone?
There I was thinking that in days gone by people used to leave their wet shoes by a roaring fire stuffed with scrunched up newspaper. It turns out there is a weird and wonderful antique contraption called a Ronning Shoe Dryer which simply plugged in, does the same job as an electric blanket but on a much smaller scale. I am completely bemused by the existence of such odd things so thought I’d share them with you guys.
We haven’t plugged these curious things in for fear of burning our new house down given the antique and distinctly dodgy wiring. They are affectionately known as Aunty Joan’s Slipper Warmers. Aunty Joan was an eccentric aunt of my Mother and we found these when we were clearing her house out a few years ago. We don’t think they actually belonged to her but lucky for us she had hoarding tendencies and jammed her little bedroom with all sorts of wierd and wonderful things that she had collected over the years.
A quick Google search eludes to them being a fairly common household item still today but particularly before central heating. In the days when you’d wake up to find frost on the inside of your bedroom window, these bad boys were essential particularly if you worked the land and had ended the day with soaking wet boots. Nothing worse than cold, wet feet.
In a bid to combat my own hoarding issues, I am selling them on eBay. I need to stress they are not PAT tested so use at your peril! Click here to view.
