The Greatest Invention of All Time

Yesterday's post was all about putting some hard work in to move a pile of dirt from where it was delivered to the garden which is located about 30 feet to the south and west.  It was hard work, but I kept at it until the pile disappeared.  I worked up a sweat.  Even though it was only around 80 degrees, my shirt was soaked and so were my pants.  I had the good sense to wear gloves, so I avoided blisters from shoveling.  I was exhausted when I was done.  I slept like a baby and woke up sore in my shoulders and back.

I had another ailment, though.  Walking back and forth with sweat soaked pants that rubbed continuously all day, left me chafed.  We always called it chapped growing up.  Whatever you call it, it is uncomfortable.  Where the wet clothes rub your legs, it irritates the skin, making it red and inflamed. It is painful to walk and probably looks quite funny from a bystander's perspective because the chafing makes you walk bowlegged.  To the victim of chafing or chapping, however, it is not funny at all.

I have memories of this affliction from my childhood and I posted about it in the Red Rice post from back in 2013.  I describe the chafing problem in that post briefly.  What I didn't get into was what we did to try and treat it.  My great-grandmother's remedy was to fill your pockets with the leaves of a China Berry tree to the inflamed area.  That didn't seem to do much good.  Nothing seemed to do much good.  It seemed as if you would just have to suffer through the discomfort every time you worked hard as there was no cure.  Or was there?

Back in elementary school, we learned about Eli Whitney inventing the cotton gin and interchangeable parts.  We also learned about how Samuel Colt invented the Colt Revolver, Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone and Thomas Edison and the light bulb.  All notable inventions to be sure.  But I'd like to nominate this product as the greatest invention of all time:

Gold Bond Medicated Powder - I only wish I had known about this back in my red rice pulling days

Gold Bond Medicated Powder.  Oh my goodness.  The cooling - the relief.   This product dates back to 1882 when some doctors from Rhode Island formulated it. Amazingly, in 1912 the formula was sold to Mr. John M. Chapman, who achieved great brand recognition and distribution, according to Wikipedia.  Hmmm.  Get it? Chap man?  Chapped man?  From this gentleman's name, it appears he may have had a genetic predisposition to being chapped, so no doubt this product was near and dear to his heart (or his chapped parts).

Okay, so this post may be sort of tongue-in-cheek, but it is a good product that gives great relief to hard-working dirt movers or red rice pullers everywhere.  For full-disclosure, Gold Bond Medicated Powder did not pay me a penny for this favorable review, unfortunately.