There is only one person who can answer this question:

[mimififi]

You know who you are, but I need to know, what is a snoose can and how would it tuck into the top of a pair of boots.....?

I have been puzzling this for nearly an hour, googling searches have been unfruitful, and it will keep me up all night wondering if you don't help me now!!!!!!!

Pleeeeaaaaase: put me out of my misery!

[maggie01]

searching says its a nickname for snuff or chewing tobacco.

[mimififi]

Is that like regular baccy, like Malboro or something, and how big are the cans, are there any images? I'm trying to think how one would carry this in their foot wear?????? Answers just lead to more questions... My google searches were monumentally dissappointing.

Also, why is it called snoose? and do they say snoose as in noose or mouse or do they snoose as in snooze or booze??? It is praying on my mind and is most certainly never referred to in any of Stienbecks writings....Is it a modern term? I thought I was fairly knowledgeable with most of the language state side, but this really threw me.....

[dotjhawkes]

Boots were made with small leather pockets on the side, I am selling a copy of such a boot at the moment. It is an army style I believe and so look for more military footwear sites.

[mimififi]

ahh. pockets, that would make perfect sense. Does this cover cowboy boots too, do they come with pockets too? If they do, do they all come with pockets or are they a seperate feature???

I'm so intrigued.

P.S Is it your birthdy today? If it is, I wish you many happy returns!

[mimififi]

Bingo: I think I have found it. A dipping tobacco, oringinal from sweden, where it is called Snus pronounced 'snoose'. A moist baccy, (as it is steam cured, not fire-cured like smoking tobacco) which is kinda sucked or chewed having the same effect as smoking would, without the whole inhalation problem and lung cancer issue (tho oral cancer is a great concern, and the addictive effects are the same.) is this the same, is this were it originated from?

My husband is asking his friend in New York, but he doesn't seem very knowlegeable about the whole thing.

And I guess it comes in tins, or cans which are slim and small enough to tuck into the top of one's cowboy boots. Is this correct?

However, if noone tucks their trousers into their boots, do they have to pull their trouser leg up, remove the tin and then pull the leg back down again? This seems all rather awkward. WOuldn't a pocket in one's shirt be more convenient???

And, er....Clanad, where are you???????

[maximo]

I don't know if this will help, but I think I know what you're talking about ( for the tobacco part at least ) : I work with a swedish girl who showed me those little nicotine pouches they use in Sweden. They look like tiny little tea bags, and you use them by sticking one between the upper lip and the gum, above the front teeth. The nicotine is released more quickly and steadily in the blood this way,apparently ( yuk ! ). The ones she showed me came in a round metal tin, about the size of a beer mat. I'm not sure about the name though ! Hope this helps...

[mimififi]

I think that is probably is the sort of thing. In sweden it's definately called snus, in the deep south apparently they have something called snoose, so I can only imagine they are the same.

And yes, yuck, yuck, yuck....I think I'd rather smoke!

Cheers for that Max

[Clanad]

Gee, it's nice to be needed! Snoose, in the western U.S. (cowboy country) is a euphemism for canned chewing tobacco. The most popular brands are Skoal and Copenhagen. Skoal is flavored with mint or wintergreen. The cans are about 3 inches in diameter and about 1 inch thick. They are often carried in the right rear pocket of Levis and cause a distinctive faded, circular pattern that is the hallmark of a dedicated "dipper". The cans are often carried just inside of the top of the cowboy boots. (Pockets on cowboy boots? Perish the thought!) The boot cut Levi's or Wranglers allow pulling the pant leg up to retrieve or deposit the cans.

The tobacco is fine cut, but not as fine as snuff, which is powdered tobacco and placed on the muscle at the base of the thumb and forefinger and then suddenly "snuffed" up the nose. (Humans can devise numerous rather unsavory habits). Snoose or "dip" is pinched between the forefinger and thumb and deposited in the space between cheek and lower gum and is absorbed through the gums. Real chewers rarely, if ever expectorate (that's spit for residents of the Powder River Basin). Sometimes, though, pickup trucks have what appears to be an empty Coca-Cola can on the dash board. Never, no never, should one pick it up hoping to take a swig of Coke.... bad mistake!

Some of the nice folks (tourists, actually) use the "nice" bags of dip... it is not, however, the Cowboy Way... (never used the nasty stuff myself, though).

Contd.

[Clanad]

Contd.

By the way, don't know why it has come to be called snoose. (Rhymes with noose). Had a friend I grew up with whose nickname was "Snoose". He outgrew it however and is now a retired airline Captain.

As for the fencing tool that can also be carried in the upper boot ... this is what it looks like:

http://www.hooverfence.com/tools/fence-pliers.htm

(Scroll down to the 2-T1900)

By the way, welcome to HRH, The Prince Charles The Prince of Wales and the fair Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall to the U.S. !

[mimififi]

Clanad, Hurrah! I was beginning to think maybe we had been ambandoned by our resident cowboy, and there you are at the 11th hour!

Thank you. Now it is clear in my head. I can cease worrying about trying to fit small can's into my boots as I don't chew tobacco or in fact anything at all, except for maybe a biro lid now and then.

I have also perused your fence mending equipment, and am happyy that they do not look as though they pose as much of a danger as I first thought. Only maybe some mild chaffing if caught at the wrong angle.

And, so that is what boot cut is all about is it: wider bottoms to enable the wearer to lift them over his or her boots to retrieve items that have been placed in their footwear for safe keeping. And there I was thinking it was maybe just a fashion thing.....

Thanks everyone, and thanks Clanad: Suddenly everything becomes clear.

:-)

[Clanad]

Yer welcome, Ma'am...(Just don't call 'em bell bottoms or flared, or any of those other, ya' know, fashion stuff... no girly men out here!) Pleasure's been all mine...