[Cashmere]

I've always hated watching the old timers blast a full nose of snot into a hankie, drive a finger through the hankie into each nostril and drill to clean it out good, and then fold up the whole mess and jam it - hopefully - in the pants' pocket, but - worse - in the breast pocket. Please G-d, don't reuse it. Can I have the pleasure of washing the hankie basket?

But, as it turns out, Kleenex will be gone soon, and I'm either going to blow my nose like Billy Buck in the Red Pony or I'm going to use a snot rag.

Ug.

[burtonridr]

I think that will be the least of your worries...

[emersonbiggins]

If Kleenex goes away, TP can't be far behind...

[Cashmere]

True, but it will be the most irritating of my worries.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Dental floss, soap, flush toilets, clean clothes. I think I know why they died so young in the Middle Ages. They stank themselves to death. The world after peak oil will stink to high heaven.

[Ludi]

Ah, the delightful boogery, poopy world of the future!

[RonMN]

PMS Wrote:
They stank themselves to death

[CarlosFerreira]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'D')ental floss, soap, flush toilets...

[perdition79]

What about when people go back to horses for transportation? Crowded city streets, teeming with pedestrians, all breathing in the powdered, dusty horse excrement filling the air.

[Ludi]

Horse poop was generally too precious as fertilizer for it to stay on the streets very long, except in places like Western frontier towns. In Paris, all the poop was carefully gathered for the intensive garden farms that surrounded the city. This was probably the case in all the large cities.

[Daniel_Plainview]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cashmere', ' ')Kleenex will be gone soon,

[alokin]

If you have really a cold, use normal hankies and your nose will not get that read, I hate kleenex (or tempo).
I just bought heaps of hankies in the OP shop..

[kpeavey]

When I was 4 or 5, I was at the circus with my grandmother, mother, brother and great aunt. Being 5, I always had something on my face-drool, boogers, cotton candy, got milk, cat hair, leaves, lipstick-whatever. My grandmother had an emergency cleaning kit at the ready.

She'd reach into her purse, pull out a kleenex that had been in there since Jesus came over on the Mayflower, unroll/unfold the thing to a sufficient size, hork on it, then attempt to wipe my face with the thing.

Even at 5 years old I understood germ theory. To this day I have no Kleenex in the house. When I a Kleenex, I turn and run. It was tougher when I was younger, but after years of intensive therapy, I'm doing much better, started talking again, and the tremors are hardly noticable.

Sometimes it comes back:
"MeMe, NO!" (pronounced maymay, or maim'ee to us kids)



Discaimer: smiley denotes humor in the story through artistic license which allowed the addition of the therapist through the tremors. No actual 5 year olds were injured in the telling of this story.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kpeavey', '
')Even at 5 years old I understood germ theory.

[kpeavey]

As funny and gross as I think the story is, you are EXACTLY RIGHT.

[dinopello]

No Kleenex? Just use TP. Wait, no TP? That would be serious!

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', 'N')o Kleenex? Just use TP. Wait, no TP? That would be serious!

[CarlosFerreira]

No TP? Regular newspaper better NOT be replaced by the Internet...

[PhebaAndThePilgrim]

Good day from Pheba, from the farm:

Oh, good grief, we are so doomed. What a bunch of Miss Prisses.
I have never had a box of kleenex in my house.
I have always used handkerchiefs.

Kleenex is a total waste of natural resources.
Dioxin is created in the manufacture of the product.
paper tissues are much harder on gentle nasal tissue than cotton.
Handkerchiefs are easy to keep clean, and much cheaper to use.
I have about 50 handkerchiefs. I keep them clean, and folded in a top drawer in my dresser.
I have them in every color of the rainbow.

My daughter was visiting last year. She had a cold. I loaned her a handkerchief.
She was hooked. I went out and bought her 50 handkerchiefs.
You can also make your own if you sew.
My daughter is a nurse. She is raising 3 very healthy, rangy, tough little boys.
She is concerned that our children have weakened immune systems because they are not being exposed to enough dirt and germs.

Handkerchiefs that are used do get a little snot on them.
When that happens, you wash them. My grandparents always had a handkerchief. Grandma in her purse, grandpa in his pocket.
Before the corporate gods convinced us that we could not live without Kleenex, everybody carried handkerchiefs.
yes, they could be filthy, if you did not wash them.
My Grandma prided herself on her scrubby dutch cleaning. Her handkerchiefs were no exception.

The only color back then was white. Grandpas were just plain white. Grandma's were embroidered and were beautiful and feminine. Grandma's were of a lighter cotton. Grandpa's were heavier.

Grandma raised us kids. My Mom was divorced and worked. She had her hands full. Still, both Mom and Grandma always had a handkerchief to wipe food from a kid's mouth, or wipe a runny nose.

The handkerchief in question did not come over on the Mayflower. It was probably handmade or purchased at the local 5 and dime.
There is also a good chance she received the handkerchief as a gift. Handkerchiefs were inexpensive common gifts.

No matter the source, the handkerchief was always spotlessly clean, and folded in Grandma's purse.

The handkerchief usually smelled like a combination of Grandma's perfume (Avon To A Wild Rose), and Doublemint gum.

What I wouldn't give to feel and smell that handkerchief today.

Pheba.

[Cashmere]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pheba', 'N')o matter the source, the handkerchief was always spotlessly clean, and folded in Grandma's purse.

The handkerchief usually smelled like a combination of Grandma's perfume (Avon To A Wild Rose), and Doublemint gum.