Taking the Fifth (of Blogtoberfest)

I had given this post some thought before Dearest Sister referenced ‘the stash closet of yore’ in her previous post. Initially, I was all darn her, she’s beat me to it. But then, taking the easy way out, I twisted my rationale to this – ‘but the idea of ‘tag team blogtoberfest (roll out the barrel…we’ll have a barrel of fun…)” is to use each other. In a good way. To spur each other on! As each other’s muse! To stimulate inspiration and thought processes!’

So here I am…copying.

When one has three teenage daughters, a good place to work is somewhere that offers free, and/or highly discounted personal care products. And for a few years in central Missouri, I worked for the old petroleum jelly manufacturer, Chesebrough-Ponds, a.k.a Unilever.

We made Q-Tips (the manufacture of which is absolutely fascinating!), cotton balls, polish remover, Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion (all the bottled varieties of VICL, pronounced vickle), and TOOTHPASTE! We made Mentadent, Pepsodent, Close-Up, and Aim – all varieties for all of North America. I worked in the QC lab, testing the raw materials. Seriously, I have seen a 55 gallon drum of petroleum jelly.

Not only did I get the unused portions of lab samples for free, there was a company store, where we could purchase all the companies products at hugely discounted prices, and if that weren’t enough, throughout the year, grab-bags were offered for even more incredible prices. Oh, those halcyon days!

In Middle Daughter’s closet, behind her clothes rack, there were deep shelves that became ‘Becky’s Booty Closet’. Product was stacked and organized in this closet in store-like fashion. Everyone could choose their favorite viscosity of lotion, preferred flavor of toothpaste, and number-one fragrance of polish remover. And by everyone, I mean extended family and old friends and visitors of all types. At this time in our lives, we lived in a rather central locale and saw some of these rather regularly. And by regularly, I mean whenever they ran out of toothpaste.

We had one bathroom at this particular house. But on the counter…at any given time? Three, maybe four varieties of dentifrice (that’s really the technical term. And I challenge you to use it in correct form in a sentence by the end of the day.) And five or six types of lotion. I still need a variety of lotion to choose from.

There were no ‘cosmetic puffs’ in our house. Nothing but real cotton! I cannot use anything but real Q-Tips. It makes a difference. Sadly, that process is no longer run at that plant, and all the ‘Q-Tip Ladies’ retired or had to find different places in the plant to go.

I had fun working there, and am still in touch with a few of my former peeps, one of whom I consider a good friend.

But, alas, I am back to buying toothpaste (oh Pepsodent, where have you gone?) and lotion (which does not include VICL!). And Wonderful Guy does not get why I have to have Q-Tips.

But I still have one little bottle of polish remover that I am still using!