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Plastic pants in the 1950s?


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11 hours ago, Wetpants said:

I was a baby in the 50's and I know for a fact that I wore Playtex Rubber Pants.  I have memories of wearing them when I was as young as 2.5 years.  I have a vivid

memory of her asking me when she was going shopping, what I "wanted from uptown", which usually was a new toy.  I asked for a new pair of rubber pants, she

gave me a funny look, but got them.  I would hold them at night when I went to bed.  They were folded and put under my pillow for a few weeks, then disappeared.

Later, I started bedwetting, I remember my mother getting several pairs of Stay-Dry AIOs....in the beginning, the sides were tied with laces...it wasn't till

just near the end of when I stopped, that they had snaps.  The plastic was very smooth and the diaper unfolded to make it easier to try them after washing.  They

weren't supposed to be drier dried, only line dried.

Nice memory!  I myself probably had rubber pants at times when I was less that 2 years old but I mostly remember the Gerber vinyl pants since I was a bedwetter and wore cloth diapers and plastic pants to bed until I was almost 6 years old.  My older cousin worked as a checker at the grocery store we shopped at and I always remember going through her checkout line (3 lines only in the mom and pop store) and giving her a kiss on the cheek.  The embarrassing times were when I was 4 years old or older and my mom would put the toddler size Gerber vinyl pants in the shopping cart while I was sitting in it.  They don't last forever, especially wearing them to bed every night and needed regular replacing.  I know at 4 years old my cousin would see my mom buying those Gerber plastic pants and know there was only one person in the house that would be wearing them - ME!

What's really interesting is this was in the early 1960's since I was born in 1959 and I'm 58 years old.  If you were a baby in the 1950's, Wetpants, how did you manage that when you are only 52 years old now?

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My oldest sister Penny is also Granny Vi's oldest grandchild. Penny was born in 1959. Granny searched to buy Penny some genuine PlayTex latex baby pants. She found one pair of toddler large ar a baby store going out of business. By the time Penny was large enough for those pants they had deteriorated and could not be worn circa 1963.

Bottom line is that PlayTex stopped production of latex baby pants in October 1954, but the started making vinyl baby pants at that time. Granny Vi tells me that for years after actual latex pants were no longer available many people called all waterproof pants "rubber pants".

My Mom was born in 1937, Granny Vi first child. PlayTex baby pants became available in Southern California that year, when Mom was about 4 months old. Granny bought a pair of PlayTex baby pants to try. She used those on Mom and her other daughters until they went out of production in early 1942 due to WWII. Granny's youngest daughter is my Aunt Betsy born in 1947. Although Granny used vinyl panties for herself and her older daughters needing just-in-case diapers, she used PlayTex on Betsy, even for just-in-case use when Betsy was 7. After PlayTex stopped making latex baby pants Granny switched Betsy to Gerber vinyl panties like the rest of the family.

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I clearly remember the "pink" panties (actuall peach which is more like orange) and a pair of transucent panties that were sor tof an ecru or like that that were smooth to the touch because I felt them. This was around the time I turned 3 but seems to have been before that time. I and several others still call them rubber [panties and often call the material rubber as was done in my house when I was very little . The aunt who took care of me, with whom I lived was born in 1915. There were Klienerts rubber pants in 1871 and later. Click on each of the imjages to see the dates. I checked on them when I copied them. They were print ads sold on Ebay, I waited until they were sold or gone before I used them, or were images in something like Google books and I took down the dates of the issues of the magazines they were in

http://other.sandralyn.net/panties.html

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9 hours ago, Little Christine said:

 The aunt who took care of me, with whom I lived was born in 1915.

 

Another term from that era is what they used to call "oilcloth" It was a floor covering that felt like hard plastic. I have actually seen it. The big upstairs room in my house had a glossy floor covering that was there when I was very little, by age 4. it had a repeating pattern. This material was a textile that was soaked in linseet oil and was waterproof. It had been around since the 19th century and was common in the late 1940's and 1950's It was alos called "linoleum" Lin(seed)+oleum=oil. "oilcloth" is another term from that timeframe. The one I am talking about in the upstairs bedroom was there until the middle 1970's so it lasted at least 30 years and had one worn area but for the most part was still in very good condition both materially and cosmetically. So howmany persons wh wore "rubber panties" remember "oilcloth"?

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When I was a kid our first house had a linolium kitchen floor.  It was dark green with maybe a little pattern in it, and I remember one side along the cupboards had a big crack half way down the length of the floor that was curling up.  I had seen tiled floor but this was one huge seamless piece of hard linolium.  In the 7 years I lived in that house from birth (my parents bought it 10 years before I was born), that crack was always there.  To replace it, everything in the kitchen would have had to be taken out, the linolium scraped up and either a huge new piece of linolium would have had to be bought, unrolled, carefully measured and cut to fit around the counters, then glued down in one piece, or individual tiles would have had to be layed instead.  Lots of work involved that I'm sure my dad was not crazy about doing (although he would have if my mom wanted him to do it).

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On 4/10/2018 at 12:45 PM, Little Christine said:

Another term from that era is what they used to call "oilcloth" It was a floor covering that felt like hard plastic. I have actually seen it. The big upstairs room in my house had a glossy floor covering that was there when I was very little, by age 4. it had a repeating pattern. This material was a textile that was soaked in linseet oil and was waterproof. It had been around since the 19th century and was common in the late 1940's and 1950's It was alos called "linoleum" Lin(seed)+oleum=oil. "oilcloth" is another term from that timeframe. The one I am talking about in the upstairs bedroom was there until the middle 1970's so it lasted at least 30 years and had one worn area but for the most part was still in very good condition both materially and cosmetically. So howmany persons wh wore "rubber panties" remember "oilcloth"?

Though related, oilcoth and linoleum are quit different

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oilcloth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleum

The point of this post was to show how a term, like "rubber pant(ie)s" becomes generic to one generation and is used thereafter as a generic term. I have seen the term used to date

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2057872.m570.l1312.R1.TR0.TRC0.A0.H0.TRS4&_nkw=rubber+baby+pants&_sacat=0

Which I understand some British still call "rubbers"

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  • 1 year later...
On March 29, 2018 at 7:30 AM, rusty pins said:

On the Antiques Roadshow a few years ago there was a Klinert's baby Pant's display from the early 1900's  http://www.pbs.org/video/antiques-roadshow-appraisal-kleinerts-waterproof-baby-pants-display/   That shows how far back waterproof pants go, even though they might not resemble the plastic pants of today.  I well remember in 1956 movies of my brother when he was 2 years old with plastic pants on over his diapers.  I also remember as a kid myself wearing Gerber plastic pants and ever actual rubber pants a few times around 1960 and 1961.  I wore cloth diapers and plastic pants to bed every night through 1963 and probably into 1964.  Yes, they have been around a long time.

 

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On 3/29/2018 at 8:52 AM, vvp39 said:

I first became aware of soft vinyl plastic in the late 1940's. Although I don't remember plastic pants per se, I do remember plastic tablecloths, aprons, shower curtains, and raincoats...why would there not also have been plastic pants?

I wish that vinyl material was still available so I could make waterproof pants out of it. With that said, however, I find that the modern-day PUL (polyurethane laminate) is far superior as far as breathability so I don't sweat or get clammy when my diaper gets wet. Still, I'd love to pull on a pair of those 1950s style pants just once. I remember those buttery soft vinyl shower curtains, but you can't get them any more, either. (Must be an "environmental concern" thing with making that type of vinyl which I suppose I can understand).

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There've been a lot of attempts to get people scared of anything that contains chlorine; pvc does, and peva doesn't. Those people never ever mention that our blood has about the same chlorine content as seawater. Well, specifically sodium chloride (salt). Oooh, and plasticizers are bad too....

My wife was a seamstress and was one of Jo-Ann's better customers; wandering around in their store I saw rolls of translucent pvc in 3 different thicknesses. That was a few years ago though....

 

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I frankly don't recall my sisters and brother having plastic or rubber pants over their cloth (I don't remember my diaper time although wearing gauze brings back memories in sensation only).  This isn't to say they didn't exist but rather than some mothers didn't use them either for cost, availability or ignorance (maybe other reasons).  I remember my mother having a "NO SITTING ON THE COUCH" rule and I think that extended to any cloth or absorbent surface as well (rugs, beds, etc).  She would change my siblings when the cloth diapers were damp to the touch, not saturated.  This also made diaper checks very simple.  If the gauze felt cool and damp, it was wet.  Rarely did she look down the waist for poopy  but sometimes through a leg opening.

On 4/9/2018 at 7:04 AM, rusty pins said:

What's really interesting is this was in the early 1960's since I was born in 1959 and I'm 58 years old.  If you were a baby in the 1950's, Wetpants, how did you manage that when you are only 52 years old now?

Rusty, I think you need to check your math about your age...  I'm 58 until my birthday in April this year and my birth year was 1961.  If you were born in 1959, you are either 60 if you have a birthday yet to come this year, or you are 61 if you've already had it.

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5 hours ago, rusty pins said:

Yeah, I was off.   I meant 1958 and 59 years old.  Got them backwards.

That's even further off than before.  1958 would have you currently at 61-62 depending on your birthdate.  1961 is my birth year and I'm 58 until April.  With your posted birthdate of 07/26/1959, that means you're 60 now and will be 61 (your listed "Real Age") in late July.

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I was born in 1949 in the UK, and have one picture (I look a few months old) in a big thick nappy but no plastic pants at all, mind you the nappy was very thick! My sister was born in 1958 and she had these http://www.paddi.org.uk/paddi-garment.html. They were the first semi disposable nappy system which consisted of plastic pants and a disposable cotton wadding. I was transfixed by them but they were too small for me. After about two years old my nappies disappeared and I don’t know what kept me dry. At night  I just had a plastic sheet under a cotton sheet and woke up every day soaking.

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15 hours ago, DL-Boy said:

That's even further off than before.  1958 would have you currently at 61-62 depending on your birthdate.  1961 is my birth year and I'm 58 until April.  With your posted birthdate of 07/26/1959, that means you're 60 now and will be 61 (your listed "Real Age") in late July.

Your right again, and I don't even drink or smoke those funny cigarettes!  To be honest, math was always my worst subject in school and it still is.  1958 is my year of birth and will correct it in my profile.  How many times do you look at your own profile after you make it, and mine was made 14 years ago!  Probably clicked on the right year but it hopped up to 1959 on the drop down when I clicked it.

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I wouldn't.

Nobody needs to know the exact year you were born in, unless there's a chance you are underage.  And unless you were posting when you were 3 years old, you are old enough to be here.  Same with me -- my profile was created in 2005, too. 

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Well, we were instructed to fill in "Real age", which I have done, After a fashion (two equations with two unknowns), which, with my accurate burthdate will make it easy to arrive at

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On 3/28/2018 at 9:57 AM, Stroller said:

Now I don't have any nostalgia for having to wear just what I wore when I was really a baby, but how many of us are assuming we wore plastic or rubber pants back in the day, when actually we weren't?  I certainly did, until I started thinking about it, & realised I could remember nappies, changing mat, pins, but not pants over the top.

Born in one of the peak years of the Baby Boom, I think we can all agree that plastic pants and cloth diapers were like Model T Fords....you could have any shade of black you wanted.

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Like that mattered. They were  covered with colored panties, and the whole were not to be seen anyway, they were UNDERWEAR, which meant "not visible" unless your parents were pigs, or, if you were a little girl old enough to know better, about 4 or 5, unless you were a pig. diapers and rubber panties were often used as a training aid to keep your dress or skirt down at that age when I was little. It was bad enough having your panties show but absolutely intoloerable if they were a diaper and rubber panties because that marked you as a baby as well. And how may 5 or 6 year old boys practically went  totally fetal if a parent said "I am going to put you back in diapers and rubber panties" or the like, often adding "pink" or "your baby sister's" to the convo?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I can't attest to who wore what in the 50s, as it was before my time. However, my grandmother passed in 1986 and we had to clean out her house. In the garage, we found a box marked as my aunt's baby stuff. It was full of clothes mostly, but there was a couple pair of rubber pants in there too. My aunt was born in 1944.

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I have photos from 1948/9 taken of me wearing rubber pants over Curity cloth diapers. In the 1950s, photos show me wearing some sort of coated-fabric waterproof pants over my diapers. I believe Kleinert’s made such a waterproof pant at that time that were commonly available in department stores. 

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I was born in 1994 and was in diapers through 2001. As far as I can tell, I was in basically just bare disposable nappies. I know I owned at least one diaper cover because I had to evict it from a moving box while I was moving house in 2008, but I don't think it was a protective cover (this was before I knew I would give a damn about it).

As an adult, I use a lot of cloth diapers and plastic pants, because they're effective and comfy.

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  • 9 months later...

I grew up in the early 50s. I only vaguely remember having plastic pants and pin on cloth diapers until age three. I wet every night and occasionally during the day until first grade. I often wet my pants in first grade. I went to a catholic school for first grade and to have bathroom breaks were  few and far between. I continued to bed wet nightly. After first grade daytime wetting was slim to none. Nightly wetting never stopped until I was about 18, then it slowed down considerably, but not completely. It was hit or miss on nightly wetting for several years, only to return at age 27, which continues to this day. I never wore any type of diapers or plastic pants growing up as they were very difficult to find. Adult bedwetting products only came into prevalence in the late 70's or early 80s. When they started, there were only a few products out there. Now there are many more choices. I settled on pull-on overnight cloth diapers and plastic pants. Much cheaper in the long run.

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Get this and over 3 dozen other conversations about rubber panties HERE  And save the link

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On 2/28/2020 at 2:22 PM, Clr224 said:

I have photos from 1948/9 taken of me wearing rubber pants over Curity cloth diapers. In the 1950s, photos show me wearing some sort of coated-fabric waterproof pants over my diapers. I believe Kleinert’s made such a waterproof pant at that time that were commonly available in department stores. 

http://other.sandralyn.net/1942.html

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