Don Davis

[Don Davis]

Greetings fellow diaper fans. Ever since my wife Angela Bauer joined Daily Diapers she has mentioned she would be so pleased if I also joined, just like the old days when both of us were active in DPF. I had not thought of them in many years. Last October Baby Angel left me a note asking me to order her 24 DPF Baby Heaven 101 Medium that she has worn since Tommy ofered them. She already owned some when we met early in 1991. I did as I always had done, I looked up Tommy's home phone number and dialed him in Mill Valley.

He answered on the second ring, like always. His voice was just a tad older. He has to be a few years older than me and I'm a young 75! We talked as if we had dinner the last evening. He asked about my family. When I tried to place the actual order, he asked me to do so on-line. When I tried, the website had the notice from Markey saying they were no loner accepting orders. Minutes later Markey called me back to break the news that Tommy is sick and does not always remember things recently but does remember 20 years ago clearly. God Bless Tommy, he will aways be a friend!

Then I had to find Angela actual gauze diaper fast. See I am a good Daddy.

The ironic news about me is that in January 2007 doctors found I have prostate cancer. I have had the surgery last June, so it looks like I am safe another few years. What makes Baby Angel giggle as she does, is that she had to bring me a sack of diapers so I would not soak the car driving home from the hospital. Needless to say, I was not being treated by her urology team. That would have made me uncomfortable and my health plan has another urology team. I remember my last pre-op office visit when a continence counselor who is 20 years younger than my oldest daughter spent 10 minutes getting up the courage to suggest I would need "pads" temporarily, of course. When I did not resist, she started saying where I could buy Depend. Little did she know just how many adult diapers of all kinds we have in the storage room next to Angela's private adult nursery in our home. I just smiled and said I was sure my younger wife and I could find some "pads" from Depend. While I was waiting for the system to approve my membership I read a few of the topics.

What a surprise that none of us really are wild about Depend. That takes me back to when June Allyson advertised Attends on TV before KCC brought out Depend. My late wife of 30 years, Jean, lost some of her control with the birth of our youngest son in 1974. So let us say when Angela and I met that was not the first adult diaper I had changed. All of us were so sad the way P&G gave up on adults years before they sold Attends to Paper Pak, which is now renamed Attends. Jean was always an Attends gal during the day, and favored pinned gauze at night, with Gerber adult vinyl panties from the pants factory in Three Oaks, Michigan. Those ladies were so nice. About 1980 Jean and I visited that factory. Didn't I just read that the employees who bought it to form VIP decided to close up?

Since in the AB world I only am Daddy, to me the convenience of Depend Adjustable outweighed the downsides. I had good control before the prostate surgery. I had a cath for the week after, and it dribbled. In the car it leaked a lot. Angela put an washable underpad on my seat, and the thing is I could work the Adjustable myself and them I did not habe the flexibility to tape my own. I could pin Angela but I could not reach my left tapes.

Sorry, tonight my fingers are not cooperating with my mind, so I will sign off now.

Daddy Don, forgive my typos

[Repaid1]

Welcome Daddy Don, it is a real pleasure to have you aboard with Angela. I had lost touch with you since the "OLD" DPF Days. I too was saddened to hear of Tommys Health and the demise of DPF. It took a turn for me in the late 90's so I didn't rejoin. I lost touch with many of my old friends glad to see you both back around the neighborhood so to speak. Enjoy!

[Don Davis]

Thank you, Square Duck: For quite some time ACD has been one of our vendors. They are one of the few offering the new style of diaper gauze that combines the attibutes of classic Kendall Mills high threadcount diaper gauze and the classic Dundee Mills diaper Birdseye weave. As you know, years ago Gerber Soft Products bought first Dundee circa 1992 and then the diaper products and a few production facilities from Kendall Mills. As part of that deal, since Kendall is an ongoing business and owns the Curity brand names in other products, required that as soon as existing supplies of finished diaper produced prior the sale were shipped to stores, Gerber would indetify diaper with their name. Apparently about the same time Gerber had difficulty keeping the aging diaper gauze looms in working order. Spare parts were not available, and the worldwide changes in cotton supply no longer produced the very special thread needed for the old classic diaper gauze. This compromise, while not the same as "Curity" gauze, functions well.

You are correct, ACD does sell adult gauze prefolds, but those are not the same as the DPF Baby Heaven D101. The BH 101 was made using a nearly identical gauze to the Curity. When Gerber bought both Dundee and Kendall's diaper gauze production, the FTC filed a writ mandating that Gerber offer both Birdseye and Cutity specification diaper gauze to any independent customer in the adult or baby business. When independent companies neither Dundee or Kendall would accept wholesale orders for their specialty fabrics. Among the people frustrated were our long-time friends and vendors who started Edley. They had tried to buy Birdseye from Dundee for years, without success. Days after the Federal writ was active, a Gerber rep made a cold call on Edley and offerd them open credit and shipped them bolts of Dundee Birdeye the same week.

The BH 101 not only used a gauze identical to the more robust fabric Curity used in the prefold. It is similar in concept but not identical to the clasic weave Curity used in the flat 21"x40" diapers. The more robust gauze was used by Curity in their "Night Weight" flat 21"x40" The other key part of the BH 101 and the Curity/Gerber gauze and Birdseye prefold is the Kodafil non-woven synthetic "sponge" used in the soaker section. For reasons known only to ACD they follow the British practice of using terry weave as the "sponge"

Angela and I do not endorse the use of terry in diapers. Unlike Kodafil, Birdseye and gauze, it is mot possible to wash terry effectively enough to render diapers sanitary. We declined to order the ACD prefold.

As her supply of BH 101 dwindeled (the most recent shipment from DPF to her was in 2003) she was experimenting with an entirely differend folding method that does not require any adult prefold. Instead she starts with a single ACD 36" or 44" flat square 2-ply diaper, into which she folds 1, 2 or 3 off the shelf Gerber baby Birdseye prefolds, which do use Kodafil. It takes her a few seconds longer to prepare a fresh diaper for pinning, but it save time during the washing and drying phase.

Tommy never revealed the vendor making the BH 101 for DPF, and we declined their generous offer to buy the DPF Store as an on-going business. Sources believe the BH 101 were produced off-shore.

It was sad that VIP, like ProHealth and Edley decided to fold as the founders retired. VIP had also used up their stock of the unique vibyl fabric they used and were faced with a minimum oder calculated to be a 7 year supply of vinyl with a 3 year shelf life. That is the diaper business.

Don

Hi Don and welcome!

When I first found the AB/Dl world back in 2000, I found DPF and read as much as I could through the on-line news letter and remember reading many of Angelas' posts, and of her adventures with her daddy, though you never posted.

Its great to see the two of you here, and i look forward to reading about your spin on the whole AB/Dl thing and how you two have made things work over the years.

In looking for gauze diapers, 'adultclothdiaper.com' has some really nice prefolds in gauze available, as does another vendor on 'idiaper.com' I have ordered a few and really really like them a lot very comfy.

Yes you hear right, VI Products over on 3 oaks closed their doors, which was sad because they made an awesome product....*sigh* oh well.

But, enough of my rants, again welcome to this neet lil corner of the net and I hope the two of you find it as enjoyable and fun a place as you found DPF to be, before it's demise.

{{{{{{{{{{{HUGGIES!!!}}}}}}}}

square duck

qwack

[robehouse]

Hi Don. I, like many of of those on this site, are former DPF people. I enjoyed reading about you and baby angela. I am glad that you are here as well. Just make yourself at home.

[Jedward]

Hi daddy Don glad to see you here and hope you have as much fun as Baby Angela has been having

[Saschadzg]

Minutes later Markey called me back to break the news that Tommy is sick and does not always remember things recently but does remember 20 years ago clearly. God Bless Tommy, he will aways be a friend!

Hello Don,

Welcome to the forum. I still rember the meeting with Tommy in Schwaebisch Hall, Germany and when I was their city guide in Aachen, where we followed the traces of Charlemagne. It had a lasting impact on me and changed my life.

Kvetinka / Christina Cveta Jasmina