QUARANTINE BLOG # 493

August 5, 2021

A reader supplied the following conversation from a married couple:

A wife asks her husband, “Could you please go to the store and buy a carton of milk and if they have avocados, get two.”

A short time later the husband comes back with two cartons of milk.

The wife asks him, “Why did you buy two cartons of milk?” 

He replied, “They had avocados.” 

Do you need to read it again? 

👉  A young woman of my acquaintance asked me to research the origin of pantyhose for the blog.  I thought it was a strange request because she told me she stopped wearing them years ago, and so it seems have most women.  

In 1970, U.S. sales of pantyhose exceeded stockings for the first time, but from 1995 a steady decline began, leveling off in 2006 with U.S. sales less than half of what they had once been.  This decline has been attributed to bare legs in fashion, changes in workplace dress code, and the increased popularity of trousers.  Some women do not wear pantyhose for environmental reasons, noting that they usually cannot be recycled, and nylon pantyhose are not biodegradable, and burning nylon pantyhose releases toxins into the atmosphere.  But enough about the demise of pantyhose and back to their beginning.

Three generations of women have now experienced waist-to-toe stockings, and few would be surprised to discover that a man invented pantyhose.  But here’s the twist – it was at the request of his wife.

Allen Gant and his wife Ethel Boone Gant were on the overnight train to North Carolina, returning home from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, when a pregnant Ethel informed her husband that this would be her last trip with him – at least until the birth of their child.  It was nothing personal, just a matter of comfort.  Managing her stockings and garter belt over her expanding belly was becoming difficult, and being a proper lady, she would not be seen in public without her hosiery.

The year was 1953 and if you were a woman, a night on the town meant either squeezing into a girdle or slipping on a garter belt.  Formal dress dictated that females wear such intimate, and often uncomfortable, articles of clothing.  How else could you hold up your nylons?

Gant, president of the textile company Glen Raven Mills, was inspired by his wife’s lament.  “How would it be if we took a pair of panties and fastened the stockings to it?” he asked Ethel.  She stitched some crude garments together, tried them on, and handed the products to her husband.  “You got to figure out how to do this,” she said.  Allen brought his wife’s experiment into the office, and with the help of his colleagues developed what they later called “Panti-Legs.”  Their product – the world’s first commercial pantyhose – began lining department store shelves in 1959.

From the 1961 Sears Christmas Catalog

More tomorrow.

👉  No one has ever accused The New York Times of being a conservative news organization.  They were loud and long in their attacks on Donald Trump during his presidency, and as anti-Trump as they were, they have been equally pro-Biden during the first seven months of his presidency.  Therefore you can imagine my surprise when I read the following from yesterday’s edition (I added the italics for emphasis):

“The rate of inflation has been rising at its fastest pace in over a decade – to 5.4 percent in June, from 1.4 percent in January when Biden took office, with no end in sight.  The number of homicides grew by 25 percent from 2019 to 2020, and the 2021 rate, 6.2 homicides per 100,000 residents, is on track to become, according to The Washington Post, “the highest recorded in the United States in more than 20 years.”

“The number of illegal border crossings has more than doubled during Biden’s seven months in office ... U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that in June of this year the enforcement agency ‘encountered 188,829 persons attempting entry along the Southwest Border,’ a 142 percent increase from the 78,000 in January 2021 when Biden assumed the presidency.”

Is it too much to hope that someone has awakened to the fact that Uncle Joe is not the be-all and end-all that he has been touted to be?

👉  A book checked out a half-century ago has been anonymously returned to a Pennsylvania library.  A 1967 copy of Coins You Can Collect arrived last month at the Plymouth Public Library along with a $20 bill.  An accompanying unsigned letter, written as if by the book itself, said “Fifty years ago, a little girl checked me out of this library in 1971.  At this time, she didn’t know they were going to move from Plymouth.  As you can see, she took very good care of me.”  The letter continued that the book was packed away often for frequent moves but was “always with many other books.”  The letter writer said she knew the $20 wouldn’t come close to paying the accrued fine, but suggested “Perhaps you can pay off some fines of some kids with it.”  Library director Laura Keller said both letter and book will soon be on display at the library.  The book pictured, is for sale on eBay, buy-it-now price of $18.83, with free shipping.

👉  A few words about aging:

👉  Today’s close, “Life in the Ark – and You Are There!” is from The Story by Zondervan.

“For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth.  The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days” (Genesis 7:17, 24).

It lasted a little longer than a year, that multi-sensory experience on steroids.  Yes, we’re talking about Noah’s extraordinary time aboard the ark.

• Sights: Parrots, peacocks, pandas, polar bears.

• Sounds: Caws, growls, roars, trumpetings.

• Touch: Puppies, porcupines, kittens, snakes.

• Smells: Unhappy skunks. And the stable floors...

• Tastes: With smells that intense, who could really taste food?

God calls.  We obey, and it’s not always a luxury cruise.

God had told Noah to bring onboard the ark “two of all living creatures, male and female” (Genesis 6:19).  The future of the animal world was, literally, riding with Noah!  Noah could at least know the satisfaction of obeying God.  The rest was up to the Almighty.

And maybe that solid sense of contentment that comes with obeying God made the sounds and smells very, very unimportant.

Whatever the surroundings, being right where God wants us to be is better than being anywhere else.

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