I recently read that with inflation rising like a hot air balloon, many young families are being squeezed tremendously in buying diapers. I did a little research, and a throw-away diaper today costs about 30 cents each – give or take. Babies go through lots of diapers, maybe 8 or 10 a day. That’s $3 per day or $90 a month. Twins would set you back $180 a month. Wow!
Boomers, however, didn’t have worry about throw-away diapers. We bought cotton diapers and washed them and hung them out to dry on the clothesline.
As a boy, well I remember wanting to use the toilet and there was a dirty diaper in there, soaking. I was told not to pee on the diaper, but to remove it from the commode, pee, then put it back. I had three younger siblings and got used to it.
Then, in 1968, Nancy and I really got into the diaper business when Angelin was born. She was a pooping machine, but fortunately, my parents had given us the gift of a Diaper Service. A man came by a couple times a week, picked up our dirty diapers and replaced them with a stack of soft, clean ones.
Nancy was able to multitask. She could change a diaper with one hand and iron a shirt with the other. She also could secure them so that they were as snug as a bug in a rug. I was not as gifted. I did manage to learn how to position the diaper, wrap it to the front, but I wasn’t so hot at the pinning part. After I changed her diapers, Angelin would make three or four waddles across the living room rug and the diaper would fall off. I got better, though, but never could do it with one hand.
I think by the time Laura was born, some 14 years later, we were also using Pampers, throw-away diapers. They were much easier to use and to change, and they weren’t terribly expensive at the time, but it never seemed right to put plastic on a baby’s bottom instead of a nice soft cotton.
If I ever have to do the Depends thing, I want ‘em in all cotton.
