This post is not about my idea that we need to bring back gloves for daily wear. Seriously, they would protect us from germs, keep our hands from getting sunspots, etc., but that is for another post.
This post is about the usefulness of gloves in our daily lives. I find them so useful that I always keep a pair of leather farm gloves in my vehicle.
We all know that gloves are extremely important for gardening. They protect our hands from thorny plants, keep them from being sunburned, prevent dirt from getting under our nails, create a barrier if we accidently put our hands in an ant bed, and gives us a bit more grip for pulling weeds. Gardening gloves last for what seems like a lifetime. My old, well-worn gardening gloves are at least 30 years old, if not older. Part canvas and part leather, no amount of use and abuse has impaired their ability to protect my hands. There are a few frays starting to show, but that really doesn’t matter since I am not a TV gardener or model for a gardening magazine!
Equally important are a good pair of leather gloves. My chosen pair is the kind you find at feed and farm stores. They too are 30 years old because I remember purchasing them at the same time as I purchased the gardening gloves.
My farm gloves are the same kind my dad wore in the pasture. He would wear them for most jobs including moving square haybales because they prevented the wire from cutting his hands. He also wore them to ride horses so that the leather straps wouldn’t give him blisters.
I use the leather gloves for everything. When I take trash to the dumpster, I use the gloves to open the side door so that I can put my bags or boxes in. The most important thing I use the gloves for is to help me carry things, especially heavy things. The gloves provide extra grip and make it easier to lift boxes, plastic tubs, etc.
A few months back when we had a wild hog problem (welcome to Texas!), my nephew loaned me his hog pen. With the aid of the gloves, I was just barely able to carry my half of the pen. The gloves also prevented the wire from cutting into my hands.
When we owned the title company, many times I had to carry heavy plastic tubs full of files. Again, the gloves came to the rescue. When we moved two of our offices to new locations and had to carry furniture, the gloves helped me make it through the move.
To this day if someone asks if I will help them carry something, my first response is, “Let me get my gloves.”
As we age, we lose hand strength and often with arthritis and other issues we have a difficult time gripping things with our hands. For me, good leather loves have been the answer to these problems.
