Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A contemplation on modern life - the forgotten hankerchief

Today I forgot to put a clean hankerchief in my pocket as I left the house.

When I was a child, I always had a kid-sized hankerchief in my pocket. It was used for my nose mainly, but were also pretty good at mopping up blood from skinned knees, blood noses, and lost baby teeth. When very young, if I was in need of taking a few coins to school, my mother used to tie them into the corner of the hankerchief, so they weren't jangling loose in my pocket. I used to like the idea that one could be used as a tourniquet if I was bitten by a snake or had a cut artery. They were, in short, very useful and quite comforting.

As a middle aged adult, I continue to find them useful. Now, tissues will be used during any heavy cold instead of carrying the phlegm in my pocket all day. However, when you have young children, a large kerchief in the pocket is still extremely useful for drying hands after visits to the toilet, mopping blood from their skinned knees, etc. Even when not with my own children, my habit on going to public toilets (especially if I am about to use my hands to eat) is to finish drying my hands with my hankerchief, and then use it to protect my now clean hand when opening the exit door. They remain a very useful thing to have where ever I am. I feel lost today due to my morning oversight.

It seems to me that somewhere between the 1960's and 2009, they fell out of fashion. I am reasonably sure that no children take them to school anymore. I doubt that many adults below the age of 40 use them much either. A couple of Christmas's ago, a nephew with 3 young children of his own saw me using my hankerchief to dry my kid's hands and said "that's a handy thing to have." Indeed.

The range of hankerchiefs available in shops now seems very small; the last time I looked, it seemed quite hard to find reasonable quality ones. They are either very cheap thin things, or quite expensive. The tissue has replaced it all, but really, I find them not even half as useful.

Why did the utility of the hankerchief get lost in the modern world? Or am I mistaken, and they are more popular than I know?

If, dear reader, you have a good hankerchief experience to share, please let me know. Their rightful place in the scheme of life needs to be restored, and the campaign may as well start here.

5 comments:

TimT said...

I agree. A hanky is handy. Mum always gave us handkerchiefs when we went to school and the idea stuck with me; I also got into the habit of leaving a handkerchief under the pillow when I went to sleep (I think this is because Mum suggested I do that once when I had a bad cold).

Most people I knew at school and uni seemed to take tissues in preference to handkerchief, so maybe it's just an effect of commercialisation... you don't have to pay much for a hanky (it's just a piece of cloth) but you can keep reusing it. But you have to keep buying tissues.

In Melina Marchetta's book 'Looking for Alibrandi' there's a guy there who always carries around two handkerchiefs, just in case someone else needs one. That's a good rule to have, I think.

*Pats handkerchief in his pocket affectionately*

Anonymous said...

--In Melina Marchetta's book 'Looking for Alibrandi' there's a guy there who always carries around two handkerchiefs, just in case someone else needs one.--

Hey, my husband does that! I can tell you that I've found it a very handy habit of his when I don't have a tissue at hand myself.

TimT said...

I've tried it but never got into the habit, partly because I'm so disorganised that I inevitably get confused about which one I have used, and I end up using both of them.

Steve said...

Surely, the secret would be to keep them in separate pockets. (Although that would, in my case, mean keeping one in the same pocket I keep my wallet in, and that would make it too bulky.) If everyone just got back into the habit, it would be unnecessary. It's like the controversy over how to treat burnt out Victorians who did not have house insurance (admittedly, on a slightly different scale..)

TimT said...

Nope, tried that, I still get confused. I occasionally switch things from pocket to pocket absent-mindedly.