While I'm thinking about the passing of Dick Wilson and the end of Mr. Whipple, let's talk about the history of toilet paper. I'm serious.
Toilet paper is the kind of thing you take for granted. It's just there in the store when you need it, and it comes in multi-packs, so you can stock up. I remember when the Soviet Union was in such crisis, and American news programs showed us all pictures of the poor Russians standing in long lines in the bitter cold waiting for their ration of toilet paper. That would never happen in the US because we have it by the ton. You can buy it scented or unscented. With lotion or without. Suitable for septic tanks. Suitable for motor homes. Printed with crossword puzzles. Printed with the phrase "Asses of Evil" with pictures of leaders of the bad countries. But it hasn't always been this way.
The first documented use of paper for toilet purposes dates from 6th-century China. Use of paper for hygiene spread around the world, for the most part. Gayetty's Medicated Paper sold the first factory made toilet paper in 1857, and the British perforated it in 1880, just a year after it first appeared on a roll.
Before the invention of toilet paper, wealthier people used scraps of lace or hemp, and poorer people without scraps used more natural means–like leaves, grass, sand, snow, corn cobs or even their hand—usually the left. When I was a kid, and I ran around unattended with the neighborhood kids, we would sometimes "use the potty" in the tall hedges between our houses, and we used leaves for cleaning. We thought we were roaming free and wild, but it turns out we were part of history and didn't even know it.
The next time you buy an arm-load of Charmin, take some time to think about all the thought that has gone into giving us the product we have today. And take some time to be grateful we aren't still using corn cobs.
Toilet paper is the kind of thing you take for granted. It's just there in the store when you need it, and it comes in multi-packs, so you can stock up. I remember when the Soviet Union was in such crisis, and American news programs showed us all pictures of the poor Russians standing in long lines in the bitter cold waiting for their ration of toilet paper. That would never happen in the US because we have it by the ton. You can buy it scented or unscented. With lotion or without. Suitable for septic tanks. Suitable for motor homes. Printed with crossword puzzles. Printed with the phrase "Asses of Evil" with pictures of leaders of the bad countries. But it hasn't always been this way.
The first documented use of paper for toilet purposes dates from 6th-century China. Use of paper for hygiene spread around the world, for the most part. Gayetty's Medicated Paper sold the first factory made toilet paper in 1857, and the British perforated it in 1880, just a year after it first appeared on a roll.Before the invention of toilet paper, wealthier people used scraps of lace or hemp, and poorer people without scraps used more natural means–like leaves, grass, sand, snow, corn cobs or even their hand—usually the left. When I was a kid, and I ran around unattended with the neighborhood kids, we would sometimes "use the potty" in the tall hedges between our houses, and we used leaves for cleaning. We thought we were roaming free and wild, but it turns out we were part of history and didn't even know it.
The next time you buy an arm-load of Charmin, take some time to think about all the thought that has gone into giving us the product we have today. And take some time to be grateful we aren't still using corn cobs.
Comments
Dock leaves are nice (a country boy writes).
And I'm proud to be British now I know that we were responsible for the perforations on toilet rolls. It's details like that that made the Empire great!
And Robyn, I just love the line from that ad: "Our specially prepared paper for the use of sufferers from Hæmorrhoids is heavily charged with ointment …"
Ew!
I once knoew a guy when I worked in the bomb factory who got fired for stealing a case of toilet paper.
But the "Asses of Evil" paper, does that include Bush on there?
There is a brand of TP in OZ which has "Quilton loves your bum" written on the inside of the cardboard roll. The first time I noticed that I was seated and started giggling - "bum" is an English slang word for "bottom" and no lady would ever refer to hers or anyone else's derriere as a "bum", it's just not nice!
Congratulations on coming up with an amusing twist to your historical post today. You're "one out of the box" Robyn - that means you're unique, of course! I do feel compelled to translate some of our phrases because I'm not sure that you would understand me otherwise. Please correct me if I'm wrong about that. We see so much US TV that we're familiar with American English but I'm not sure that the reverse is true.
So we get the credit for some holes then, wow Dive we should celebrate.
Someone told me the other day that when he was small, his family was poor and it was his job to collect old newspapers and to tear them up into squares. What an asswipe job.