Cotton wadding?

I remember my mother spitting on her hanky ( which was clean), or maybe she licked it in order, to wipe dirt off my face when we were out somewhere. I must have been *very* small, but hated it, and so clearly remember it!

Gill

Cotton balls or cosmetic puffs.

Elizabeth

I thought it might be cotton balls....but I just had a cute picture of Mr Bunny Rabbit flash through my mind!

Gill

Those ain't cotton, darlin'

Elizabeth

Back in my other life, when I was a veterinary tech and even before, when I was working at a vet's office in high school, we used rolls and rolls of that cotton to immobilize fractures in dogs and cats. As I recall, we used it especially after accidents when we wanted to just stablize the bones until the patient stablized enough that we were pretty sure that it would live through the surgery to repair the bone. I haven't done that in over 17 years so they probably use something else these days. In fact, by the time I left, we had a box of maxi pads in the treatment room cupboard for dressing those ooey, gooey wounds that we didn't want to leave open. They worked really well and had the added attraction of working well in those occasional staff "emergencies" as well. :-)

Ahhhhhh!!! Celebrate with me!!!!!!!!! I just got a call from the people that do the hiring for my husband's employer (Master Brand Cabinets) that I start work TOMORROW! ! ! ! ! I've been laid off since our libraries closed last April, except for the pre-Christmas season at Harry & David and am REALLY looking forward to catching up on medical bills and actually being able to get DH a new recliner chair. One of these days he's going to fall through the one he has. :-) I'll miss those evenings to myself to stitch and read (DH works swing shift, as will I) but I'm so excited to be working again that I feel like running out to the front porch and yelling it to the trees! ! ! ;-)))))))))))

Sorry for the ramble, but happy for the reason. :-0 Liz from Humbug

snip>

I was a kid... it seemed to me that box was

Wasn't it on rctn that I learned that rabbits make love so quietly?

Cotton Balls :-)

Liz from Humbug

Feel my pain, then! When I was fourteen, I had a broken arm (fell off my horse) and was trying to hammer a four-inch nail into a hardwood fencepost, sling, plaster and all. The hammer glanced off the nail, which flew forcefully into my right eye! Ouch. By the time I'd stopped wailing and gotten a good look at it in the bathroom mirror, the iris had filled up with blood. Ouch. Mum hurled me in the car and we had a quick trip to the hospital, where a sterile pad was placed on my eye and I was advised to consult with an ophthalmologist PDQ. Ouch.

The injury (which is not the point of the story, but it was so delicious I'm enjoying re-living it) was a ruptured tiddly-pom (Cornea? Retina? Fovea? I forget...) which had bled into the body of my eye and into the iris. It was very serious and back then, there was no micro-surgery to repair it. Only Time would tell whether I'd lose the sight in my eye. I had to lie vewy, vewy still for three weeks while the eye healed.

During this time, it was very itchy and irritable and dry. Mum put drops in every day and I worried about whether I was going to lose my eye. As luck (!) would have it, the Ugly Sister companionably caught the mumps and to make nursing easier, Mum put us both in her bed during the day. Thanks, Mum. The Ugly Sister jumped and romped incessantly so that I was ready to beat her to a bloody pulp, however that would have to wait until the verdict came down regarding My Eye.

I was lucky. No damage to my eyesight, no visible trace of the injury! I could go back to school. Now, THIS is where I get to the point.

Sterile eye pads were expensive. Female sanitary pads were not. Guess what I got to wear to school each day for a month? Half a Modess taped onto my face! Mum reckoned that cutting the tapered ends off disguised them enough so 'you couldn't tell'. Hah!

On my first day back, the School Principal (*lovely* lady by the name of Mother Theophane) pulled me up and said 'Oh! You're the girl with the eye! Let me have a look, will you dear?' I lifted my pad and she peered into my reddened eyeball. Then she said 'Just put your Modess back now... '

'Trisha's Modess'. I'll *never* forget it! I was *so* embarrassed!

Oh, you've got every reason to be happy! Congratulations!!! You'll be able to acquire indecent amounts of stash and enjoy it at your leisure! Best of luck in your new job! ;-D

OMG!!! And you're still alive?!?!?!?!?! How*ever* did you manage to survive???

Joan (tongue firmly in cheek!)

Not only that, but I spit on floss all the time and so far neither I, nor any of my needlework, has disintegrated.

Not particularly sterile Lucille, in hot damp Florida

In an absolute emergency, a pad might work, but in our first aid classes we were told NOT to use them as they are designed (and contain something) to draw blood to them. . .

Linda

I do, too, and leave my needlework in my hoops. I have seen nary a mark lo, these many years. In fact, I still have some embroidery done when I was about 10 or 12. Still in great condition!

Joan, in warm (33 degrees F), melting, ND sunshine

But is that is "this is now, that was then". Sure are a lot more absorbent then the ones of my youth.

True - that's why we don't use them now - more absorbent =3D something to draw the moisture =3D don't want to put it on something bleeding.

Do you know any quilters? You could get scraps of cotton batting left over from a quilt project. It shreds apart very nicely for stuffing into pincushions (I've done just that).

Allison in Montreal