Riper Diaper?

a stack of cloth diapers

I started thinking about diapers yesterday--and not, mind you, because I am nearing the Era of Depends. (I am not even considering them, by the way). Okay, I did wear some Depends in the aftermath of my prostate surgery in June 2005.* But that was temporary, Yo, and lasted only a few (endless) weeks.

But during those weeks, I must say, I was more than a bit worried that, oh, a car would strike me in the crosswalk, and the EMT on the scene would cry out, "Dude, this guy's wearing a diaper!"

Anyway, I was thinking about diapers because I saw a TV ad for them last night, and it made me think about how much this whole diaper-thing has changed since Joyce and I became parents on July 16, 1972.

Pampers and the like were available then (though not at all in the vast varieties of today), but they weren't cheap. And we were. (We were living on the salary of a 7th grade teacher (me) and a grad assistant (her), and money was tighter than my pants when I eat too much pizza.)

So, we subscribed to a diaper service. The company (whose name I can't recall) gave us a plastic container for the dirty ones (and there were a lot of those--and I will not comment about the pleasant aroma greeting us at the end of the week when we lifted that lid), and once a week they would come by and pick up the foul ones and gives us a week's supply of fresh ones. (By the way, I just checked Google and discovered there's still at least one service still in the area--Baby Bottoms Diaper Service in Stow, only a few miles from us. So ... link to their site! This was not the service we used.)

Joyce and I quickly mastered the art of changing a cloth diaper: removing the fouled one (secured in place with safety pins), tossing it in the container, cleaning the guilty area(s) on our son, folding and arranging the fresh one (with safety pins). And then behaving as if hours would ensue before the next change ... hah!

And so--after a couple of years--after the successful "potty training"--we felt as if we'd been released from some Federal maximum security facility.

Oh, sure, there were "accidents" now and again, but--oh!--the great relief!

I'm sure it's a coincidence, but we seemed to receive more visitors after the training ... I'm sure it had nothing to do with the improved odor in the house?!?!


*I did not buy them locally but went over to Kent to get them ... embarrassed, you know?