I have a pamphlet titled, \u201cStain Removal from fabrics.\u201d It was published in the 1950\u2019s for employees of Western Electric. It\u2019s been in my collection of \u201cpaper goods\u201d for years, a collection that once included a salesman\u2019s guide from the 1930\u2019s, which outlined an extensive set of sales techniques based on a person\u2019s facial features – chins, eyebrows, noses, ears, hair color and the like. It\u2019s now in the hands of Mike Coleman; he uses it as comic relief when he\u2019s in his Binghamton insurance sales office. <\/p>\n
But back to the stain removal pamphlet; it\u2019s a valuable commodity, especially for old coots like me who rarely make it through the day without picking up an assortment of food and beverage blotches on their clothes. For me it\u2019s most often coffee, mustard, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and ink. At least once a day my wife points to my shirt and makes an exasperated observation, \u201cWhat have you spilled on yourself now?\u201d <\/p>\n
I forgot I had the pamphlet until I stumbled on it in the back of a drawer the other day. The same day I sported a bloodstain on the sleeve of my shirt, the result of an encounter with the sharp edge of an aluminum ladder. I have a long running familiarity with bloodstains from that sort of mishap; I knew I was in for it. But the stain pamphlet saved me. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDab the blood stain with Hydrogen Peroxide,\u201d it advised. Whoosh! Like magic, it disappeared. No frowns from my wife that day!<\/p>\n The next stain to arrive on my shirt was coffee. I should know better than to ride my bike and sip coffee at the same time. But the bike wasn\u2019t really the issue, it was me. Whether I\u2019m sitting at a table, reclining in a chair or just standing up and talking, coffee will find its way to my clothes. <\/p>\n The pamphlet\u2019s advice for coffee and tea stains is to drop boiling water from a height of three feet onto the stain, dab it with a water and glycerin solution or soak it in sodium perborate. I wouldn\u2019t dare splash boiling water from a height of three feet; I\u2019d end up in the emergency room. I don\u2019t have glycerin or sodium perborate. I guess I\u2019ll have to continue to live with coffee splotches.<\/p>\n