Banlon-The Wonder Fabric (I wonder why it was even made!)
As many of you know by now I have been going through family pictures. I came across one that I remember quite well.
That is my brother Lance with me. I was in the 6th grade when this picture was taken. I remember it because I was wearing my very first Banlon shirt. I'm sure you remember Banlon. It was that wonder material that was going to be the answer to all the world's problems.
WRONG!
I remember how I always get hot and sticky anytime I wore that shirt. But then, maybe it was just me. Maybe I was just hot and sticky. I also rememeber that it seemed to snag a lot. Then again, maybe it's just me. Maybe I was just carrying the cats and other sharp, snag inducing items a lot.
My mother loved that shirt. I didn't. She thought it looked nice. I thought it was a pain because it snagged so easy.
Last night I found a BLOG that had some interesting theories about Banlon. Give it a read at Unraveling a Twisted Thread.
© 2008 Barry T Horst
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
3 comments:
Am I allowed to ask what BAnlon is? I have neve rehard of it! But I will do some research.
Yes Mandy, you may ask. According to Wikipedia: Ban-Lon (sometimes spelled BanLon or Banlon) is a trademarked, multistrand, continuous-filament synthetic yarn used in the retail clothing industry. It is artificially crimped in order to achieve greater bulk than ordinary yarns.
According to Barry it is an annoying fabric that ranks right up there with double knit. It snags and you can't fix it. It makes you hot and miserable when it is humid outside. And it does a terrible job of cleaning your glasses. A cotton t-shirt does better.
In the late 60 and early 70s it seemed like that was all you could buy. I hated those shirts for many reasons. But that was all my mother bought at the thrift store. Back then it seemed like there wasn't any cotton to be had. I had one cotton shirt and a "lumberjack" shirt. I rebelled and would were that plastic, hot,uncomfortable ugly apparel any more. and the 'trousers' were in that category too. My mother wouldn't let me wear blue jeans or t-shirts or flannel. Because that's what trashy people wore. Hippies and white trash wore that stuff.
If I hadnt got into an accident and was in a bad way when I was 13, I would probably still had to were that crap until I left home.
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