Grandpa's gloves

[britbike1]

While we have been having a mild winter in Minnesota this year, the weather out east reminds me of what my grandpa used to say, "the only two things he could do with gloves on were let a team of horses run away with him and pee in his pants."

I'm sure there is a modern equivilent for the the first but I think the second is still true.

[kthom]

I applied for a job with an old rancher who then asked me if I wore gloves. I replied that I did sometimes, especially when building fence or hauling hay. He then asked if I smoked, and I said, "not much, but I do chew tobacco all the time ... Why?"
(In these days, there were still quite a few ranch hands that still rolled their own smokes). He said that if you wear gloves and smoke, about all you get done is removing the gloves to roll a smoke and then putting the gloves back on! I laughed and told him if he'd let me work for a week and I worked out, he could pay me. But if I didn't get enough work done to suit him, I'd leave and he wouldn't owe me anything but the food I ate. He gave me a try, and I worked for him a pretty long while!

Britbike1, your grandpa was right about those two things!! There might be another thing or two you can do with gloves on, but I like the way your grandpa thought!!!

[leswad]

Originally Posted by kthom

I applied for a job with an old rancher who then asked me if I wore gloves. I replied that I did sometimes, especially when building fence or hauling hay. He then asked if I smoked, and I said, "not much, but I do chew tobacco all the time ... Why?"
(In these days, there were still quite a few ranch hands that still rolled their own smokes). He said that if you wear gloves and smoke, about all you get done is removing the gloves to roll a smoke and then putting the gloves back on! I laughed and told him if he'd let me work for a week and I worked out, he could pay me. But if I didn't get enough work done to suit him, I'd leave and he wouldn't owe me anything but the food I ate. He gave me a try, and I worked for him a pretty long while!

Britbike1, your grandpa was right about those two things!! There might be another thing or two you can do with gloves on, but I like the way your grandpa thought!!!

I got $5 that this agreement was between two Texans. If not, it will help restore my faith in this country.... $5 well spent

[kthom]

Leswad,

If you are talking about the agreement between me and that old feller, then it was between two New Mexicans! But I'll tell ya that as far as I am concerned, there is precious little difference between folks in eastern New Mexico and them in West Texas beyond, of course, a little matter of a birth certificate. I've got everything I need to be a bonifide Texan now except for that little certificate! So that makes me one of those folks who got here as soon as he could. It only took me nearly 70 years, and I don't mind it a bit! My boys were both born in NM but married fine Texas girls and so all my grandkids are bonifide Texans. Now my wife was born in SE Missouri, so all bets are off with her!

However this works out, I sure hope your faith in this great country ain't damaged too severely!!!!

[leswad]

Originally Posted by kthom

Leswad,

If you are talking about the agreement between me and that old feller, then it was between two New Mexicans! But I'll tell ya that as far as I am concerned, there is precious little difference between folks in eastern New Mexico and them in West Texas beyond, of course, a little matter of a birth certificate. I've got everything I need to be a bonifide Texan now except for that little certificate! So that makes me one of those folks who got here as soon as he could. It only took me nearly 70 years, and I don't mind it a bit! My boys were both born in NM but married fine Texas girls and so all my grandkids are bonifide Texans. Now my wife was born in SE Missouri, so all bets are off with her!

However this works out, I sure hope your faith in this great country ain't damaged too severely!!!!

PM me your address please.

[Jack Flash]

I remember Grandpa helping us when we were unloading clay drainage tiles off a wagon. I wanted to go get some gloves. Grandpa said "If you wear gloves, you'll have hands like a girl."

Well, I wear gloves. I have gloves in all my vehicle's glove boxes, I have gloves behind the seats, I have gloves in the garage, I have gloves in the basement. And probably a lot of other places. I may have 40 or 50 pairs of gloves. Maybe more. And I'm not ashamed.

I would love to see some of you work outside during a Michigan winter without gloves. You'll soon take your socks off and put them on your hands.

[Tyrod]

No glove, no love!

[retiredbadge8091]

Seventeen years in the pipe trade, I wore gloves every day. Couldn't stand cutting oil on my hands and fitting or welding required good leather gloves to handle those hot welds.

I mow the lawn and do yard work with gloves too. Guess 45 plus years of hard work has taught me a thing or two about taking care of my hands. I've still got all my digits too.

[Snapping Twig]

I wear gloves for many things. I get skin cracks, painful as heck around the finger tips.

I fix appliances and do not wear them then, need acuity. If it's schmutz oriented, then I wear high nitrile gloves.

Walking the dog at night when it's cold - gloves. Moto rides - gloves, crab fishing - gloves.

Yard work, digging, fencing, construction, changing engine oil - gloves.

[Peak53]

If your hands are rough enough to put a run in nylon stockings, you need to wear gloves. Of course, nobody wears nylons any more, or at least I haven't touched any lately.

[A-37]

A most excellent thread!

[Jim R]

After my father died in 2001 I was helping clean out the garage and I came upon an old pair of dad's leather gloves. It was not easy for me but I put them in my glove box of the truck and really tried to avoid them.

Last year I bought a new truck and I had the gloves out of the old truck and was about to put them in the new truck. The lot boy yelled over to me and said "don't forget your hitch head, it's still in the receiver". With out thinking I pulled those gloves on and switched the hitch head over to the new truck. When I got done I realized I had on dad's gloves.

Now I wear those gloves every chance I get. The pain of loosing my father is still there but more and more I'm replacing it with the fond memory's of the things we did together.

[joeintexas]

I never could wear gloves. Raised on a farm I know that's strange but I couldn't seem to get anything done with them on. My dad, granddad and brother all wore leather gloves almost all day. Every family has to have one oddball I guess, I was it.

[mtgianni]

I find that there are few things I cannot do with gloves on. I have gloves i can work control lines with, enter the data in a laptop and still write with a pencil. I put the idea in the same notion that one can not work outside in -20 weather with a coat as it restricts their movement.
Like Jack Flash I probably have a dozen pair in my truck from cotton to leather to synthetics and a box of nitrile somewhere.

[dave holl]

If you don't wear gloves while changing the wax ring seal at the base of a toilette, you'll never chew your fingernails again.
Dave

[Jack Flash]

You don't wear gloves only to protect your hands. They are sometimes worn to protect something from your hands.

I watched a show on the History Channel. The show was along the lines of "Ten Greatest Guns in History". Anyways, they filmed some of it in a US Government Repository. The caretaker wore white gloves as he took rare pristine specimens out of their crates to show for the camera.

You guessed it. My guns now get the white glove treatment.

[Maddog 521]

I usually have a pair of goat skin gloves available to use. I wear them often.
Good tight fitting gloves are necessary for tig welding.

[Kinman]

My dad was raised on a farm in Minnesota, he wore those brown cotton jersey gloves all the time, leather gloves when working with a shovel, etc. He told that you could properly milk a cow with gloves on but she was always warm.
I've never been able to do much work on any vehicle with gloves on until I tried a pair of nitrile gloves. I usually wore gloves while working on the job, the right type of glove for the job.
I have friends that worked as welders and pipe fitters and a few claim that they rarely wore gloves because they got in the way. One of them has little feeling in his fingers and although retired for ten years or more still has hard hands.
I remember reading a book years ago that I believe was "Of Mice and Men" where there was a cowboy that always wore a leather glove that had vaseline in it only on one hand. From what I remember he called that hand his "lovin" hand. He was the rancher's son or somebody of importance and the only man around with a young, pretty wife. The more I think about it I'm quite sure that it was "Of Mice and Men", which was a great book.

[Jack Flash]

Yeah, that's Of Mice and Men. If memory serves, the guy's name was Curly. He fancied himself a boxer. On some slight provocation, he began beating the mentally challenged but incredibly strong Lenny. It didn't go well for Curly's hand. You can google it. My memory may be faulty.

[Frank46]

Wore gloves at work for 30 years. when cutting grass with the bushog I wear gloves, when trimming the fenceline I wear gloves. When using a chainsaw I wear gloves. when going to the scrapyard and scrounging lead for bullets I wear gloves, especially when checking out the 4'x4' boxes full of scrap brass. Never know what you will find. Keep gloves in the truck. Frank

[Dennis]

Lotta barb-wire fence work as a youngster. Leather gloves. White Mule gloves on the Planer chain at the Lumber mill. But then they went to ****. (The gloves). Got expensive. This was the mid to late 60's.
Other various things thruout my youth.
I kinda miss having hard-calloused hands nowadays.
Oh. Lotta time on a shovel as a youth, too. And buckin' hay bails. Gloves.

[Tom S.]

Try arc welding without gloves sometime, especially if you have to hold one of the pieces you are welding. Not only will your horses run away with you, but you'll pee your pants too.

[retiredbadge8091]

Originally Posted by Tom S.

Try arc welding without gloves sometime, especially if you have to hold one of the pieces you are welding. Not only will your horses run away with you, but you'll pee your pants too.

And those gloves served double duty. I was on a job outside one time in the winter and it was so cold I had to hold my gloves open over the Lincoln's exhaust to warm up the inside of the gloves so I could keep working.

[Inusuit]

In my prime I'd wear out 2-3 pair of leather gloves a year. Hauling and processing firewood, building fence, general ranch chores. Those days are long gone.

[mtgianni]

Summers I will go through 2-3 pair when dealing with pipe and fittings, leather or modern mechanics it doesn't matter much. Cotton doesn't last a week.

[Marshwheeling]

Two words: elk skin.

[hammerfired]

I wore gloves over my working life, whatever suited the task, from welding to grunt work with landscaping tools to auto or mc mechanical work to strapping down big truck loads to fueling said truck. Leather to nytril. I'm a righty and I always ended up wearing out the right glove first. Im a saver and ended up with a lot of serviceable leftys. I'm sure I'm find a use for them someday....

[BC38]

There are only 3 kinds of work I've ever been able to do in gloves,
Pitchin hay bales in high school.
Trippin pipe as an oilfield roughneck.
Packing bricks & mortar as a hod carrier.

I seldom wear them when welding or grinding or doing metal fab. I can't wear them doing wrench work, or much of anything else that requires hand dexterity.

[Kinman]

Never thought I'd be saying "back in the good old days" but...back in the good old days there was a leather processor out in the valley that would trade you a raw deer hide from you freshly killed buck for a pair of handmade deerskin gloves, they were the absolute best pair money could buy. He had a counter with matched pairs and I remember they were way too expensive for nearly anybody I knew at time, his specialty was making custom fit gloves for rodeo folks. My dad liked to wear his gloves, a pair of them would last him a couple years, he only wore them driving.
When you brought your fresh hide in he would tell you to help yourself, trying on pair after pair until you got the right size...the term fit like a glove never had more meaning, they were beautiful.