TOUCH

At age 10, most people have about 50 touch receptors per square 1/2 inch of skin. Think about that. A half an inch has 50 receptors. Someone with a calculator has to figure out just how many receptors my nearly 10 year old grand daughter has. No wonder kids can appear goosey.

At 50, we have about 10. Preliminary results show a 50 percent loss in touch acuity by age 70 or so. Well, I am not liking that at all. Perhaps I need to stretch my skin and have more!

Shame on me, it isn't a bit funny that people loose there sense of feel. My Sweet Thomas has Raynaud's. That affects his fingers; mostly his finger tips. He has lost much of the feeling. I could tell something was up when he started pulling my hair instead of stroking it.

Although our brains tell us 'old people' not to touch a hot pot, some of us never learn. We lick our fingers and touch the hot iron plate to see if it is warm enough to press that shirt. We pour coffee right out of the pot and think we can drink it. (Never do this at your soon to be parent's in law because you will swallow it rather than spit it out--manners-- DO NOT SPIT ON TABLE!) And when we go to restaurants and the waiter says, "Be careful the plate is hot", we touch it anyway.

And when we teach our grand children how to make a food dish, we say, "Until it feels right". This happened with Shirley and Kelsie while making potato Klub; it happened when my grandparents were teaching me how to make bread.

And at the end of the day, just how do those shoes feel? Do you buy your shoes at the end of the day and look for something that feels like a cradle?

Daddy didn't like to dress up. Of course not, it those days the shirts were sent to the laundry and starched so the sleeve was stuck together and one had to force their arm through it. His neck would be red from the starch. How fun is that.

What about the patterned flour sacks that Grandma made dresses and aprons out of? Where they itchy? How does wool make your skin feel? Are you one of many who feel comfort in flannel?

Do you buy clothes by feel? Is this why 20 and 30 year olds like pajama like bottoms and hoodies? How did you feel wearing organdy, can cans, and other scratchy garments because that was what was 'in'.

Our great grandmothers took an old coat, which may have been second hand and belonged to her husband, cut it down to fit her son and when the son wore it to worn, it was re cut to fit a child. By the time the wool was apparel for Greg, it was soft.

Before any of us can poo poo worn bib over alls worn by farmers, we need to feel how soft that fabric gets with numerous washings. We all know how stiff new jeans can be; apparently so do jean companies because the are offered stone washed.

Grandma had a few dresses hanging in her clothes closet. All of them were the same style. All of them were made by her. Mother had closets and drawers full of clothes when we cleaned out her house; many of them never worn probably because they didn't feel right. My children would cruise through the bolts of fabric feeling for something that felt good and didn't wrinkle, (they knew this because they crunched it in their hand).

Who picked/picks out your clothes? Why do you choose them? How do they feel after a day of wear?

If, like Mother, you had only one dress/outfit to wear to school and one for play, (in those days you changed clothes after school), what garments would you pick?

Get a hug from someone, it will use all sorts of receptors

e