On The Rag...(Grossness Alert!)

is a term we have heard through out our life but few have truly gotten to experience it.

This term does apply to women on their period but it also means more.  In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth rags were really used!  No throw away pads or tampons...that was later.

I was born to Depression Era parents and my sisters and I got to experience "the rag" growing up.  If we were out of the disposable supplies, we were given an assortment of rags to layer, fit and pin into our underwear.  These were then washed and saved for the next time.  Truly disgusting, I know, but you really don't know how truly disgusting it is, until you have done it.

Recently my poor daughter ran out of disposable sanitary supplies.  She remembered our sad rag tales and fixed her situation.  I bought her tampons.  I was very genuinely thanked for this purchase...once in person and later by phone.

She said, oh, Mom, I never knew how wonderful the plugs really were.  I said, you could be even more primitive.  No, she said, that was primitive enough and she just wanted to tell me how much she appreciated the gift.

She hung up when I asked her if she had washed the rags for next time!