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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

where the streets are paved with leather

One of the items I see abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded out on the roads are those leather and canvas work gloves. Over the course of the last several years I must have seen hundreds of pairs. They generally look to be in pretty good condition, too. These gloves are pretty cheap to buy. Probably between $1 and $5 depending on the store and or sale that is going on. They’re good gloves. I’ve got a pair myself. I’ve had mine for probably three or four years and I’ve actually put them to some pretty good use.

It’s amazing that they’re so cheap given their durability and the seeming intricacy of their stitching. I mean, I certainly wouldn’t be able to sew together a pair in an entire day’s work. It makes me wonder if there is some sort of government subsidy program for work gloves. That would make a lot of sense to me, although I really doubt it’s the case. At any rate, even though they’re cheap, I’m surprised that people let them fly out of the back of their trucks so frequently – I suppose that’s what often happens. It must be a hassle to have to replace them all the time.

They do, however, make the streets nice and soft for running on. There’s a huge difference in cushioning when your feet land on a glove versus pavement. It’s really quite nice. So if we could just bump up those subsidies a little higher and let the gloves fall where they may (is that a phrase, no, I guess it’s more like “where the gloves come off” or something) then we could all run in the streets barefoot and never have to experience a hard landing or sharp piece of glass. Plus if you ever needed a pair of work gloves you could easily find them right there in the street, use them, then return them when you’re done. A fine system, I think.

3 comments:

JustinM said...

Whenever I will be lifting something heavy I use my Atlas blue rubberized gloves. I love those things. But for regular yardwork I use the kind of glove I suspect you're talking about: leather and a rainbow-colored fabric stitching. I've had them for about 15 years. They're made in China and probably cost cents to manufacture.

mindful mule said...

Yes, those are the ones. I’d probably wear them more often but I’m always afraid there will be black widow spiders nesting in the fingertips. I'm hoping my hands will eventually be as tough as Ed’s so I’ll no longer have to wear gloves at all. Not too far off, if I do say so my self.

JustinM said...

I'm afraid of that, too, so I always fill the blue gloves with water before I put them on, and I turn the leather gloves inside-out when I take them off.

Both my brother and I got bit on the finger by brown recluses (or perhaps the same one) within a couple of months of each other. My pinkie swelled up as large as a zucchini and my brother's looked like he'd been shot. In fact, he was working on the show NCIS at the time, and they actually used a picture of his wound as a gunshot wound on the show.