BS: Wearing knotted hankies

Subject: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: The Shambles
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 07:15 PM

Is the wearing of knotted hankies - supposedly to protect one's head from the sun and especially to be worn on trips to the seaside - a British custom only?

Is it a custom that is in danger of dying-out and if so is it one that should be revived?

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: lesblank
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 07:31 PM

They are called doo rags, DOOFUSS !! Instead of bitching about the clones and how you have been vilified so often, get out, walk around and get reacquainted with the world !!

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 07:33 PM

This custom has largely been replaced by the wearing of 'baseball caps' style head gear.

Mind you, I've had a lot of difficulty trying to find the type that shades the eyes - they all seem designed to shade the back of the neck these days...

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: bobad
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 07:43 PM

I think this is a knotted hankie as opposed to a Doo Rag

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 07:52 PM

Spot on Bobad. And they are dying out in the UK. Even "Man size tissues" just ain't strong enough, and disintegrate if you sweat.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Emma B
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 07:58 PM

what about the braces too?

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 07:59 PM

I went to Southend last weekend with an octogenarian in our party and he got out his knotted hanky to place on bonce while eating his skate wings. But saying that he was the only one I saw.

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: John O'L
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 08:04 PM

When I was a kid we all used to wear knotted hankies from time to time. I don't know why, I don't think it was ever to protect us from the sun, I think it was just a cool thing that you could do with the hanky your mum made you carry with you at all times. I think it might have been regarded as being a bit piratey too.

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: artbrooks
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 08:32 PM

They are called "bandanas" in the states. I wear one under my bicycling helmet to prevent tan stripes where my hair used to be. Herself wears one quite often and, she says, looks just like her Russian grandmother when she does so.

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 09:13 PM

I'll confess I don't ever remember seeing one done British style here in the states. Some form of hat or bandana is the usual, and bandanas (larger & with printed colors)are usually tied around the head just to control the hair or keep sweat out of the eyes.

I'd suspect that a knotted hankie would immediately label one as a 'dork' in this country.

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: mack/misophist
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 09:34 PM

I knew 1 or 2 old timers in Texas who did it years ago. They were all bald, though. Come to think of it, one had spent considerable time in the West Indies.

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 09:42 PM

Designer Doo Rag

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 09:56 PM

Here in the U.S. it is caps, and they are generally referred to as gimme caps. They're given out by various businesses and organizations. I have quite a few myself.

I often take a bandana for gardening, and once it gets warm, I drape it over the top of my head so it lies over my neck, then pull my gardening hat over the top of it so I have shade on my face and down my neck.

Probably more than you wanted to know about American impromptu headgear. It isn't a fashion statement, though if you wear the bill of your hat backwards in the wrong neighborhood and your hat is the wrong color, you can get shot.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 01:58 AM

A "bandana" (and most of the other 'cloth piece' items mentioned) is physically larger than a "men's handkerchief", which is also physically larger than a 'ladies handkerchief".

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: The Shambles
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 02:12 AM

Doo Rag, bandana types are quite different things and are thought (in a fashion sense) at least by those wearing them to be cool.

I am not sure if the knotted hankie is now thought to be so - or that it ever was.

I suspect that back in the days of the cloth cap (the heyday of the knotted hankie) - when on trips to the seaside - this would be left behind perhaps as a symbol that normal conventions were not applicable for this time. And perhaps quickly put back on for the return home and that the knotted hankie was a form of headgear and security to those who wearing some form of headgear was the norm.

Just as you would not wear a knotted hankie to work - wearing a cloth cap on the beach - would have been thought to be a similar fashion mistake

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Paul Burke
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 02:57 AM

The real problem with the knotted handkerchief was getting the bogies (aka jimmies) out of your hair when you took it off. They tended to crust and dry in, and clung on like residue to an integument. The secondary problem was, how do you blow your nose on a trilby?

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 03:15 AM

Depends on the key. Good players, however, could blow it in from quite a distance away.

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: skipy
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 03:58 AM

open the door and come in Mr Gumby.
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: The Shambles
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 04:49 AM

My brain hurts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumbies

Possibly they were brain bandages?

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 06:02 PM

And what about those knotted scarves that went over the back of the head and tied in front over the brow - like a reversed 'doorag' with the dangly bits tucked in underneath? All modelled so excellently by the ladies of the munitions factories in WWII....

My mother would be resplendent in one of those over her curlers all day on Saturday, so that her hair would be perfect for Sunday, when the relatives would almost certainly visit.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: bobad
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 07:20 PM

Like this Liz?

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 01:33 AM

No Bobad, not at all like that.... and frankly I'm surprised you even look at such sites.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: John O'L
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 01:48 AM

All I see is a red circle with Leach written in it. Am I missing something?

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Paul Burke
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 04:01 AM

Just like my mum's turban.

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 06:56 AM

That's the jobbie - although that looks more like a complete, made up, removable turban than the large square head scarf that could double as a pinny, a sling, a knee bandage, a dog lead, a dust mask, a mop, a duster, a neckerchief, a windfall bag, a horse blind, a baby's bonnet, a dolls blanket, a gag....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: bobad
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 07:18 AM

Hmmm........very curious. The site to whose picture I linked to was http://victoryshirt.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=44They must have a program that removes the page linked to and replaces it with that bit of editorial comment.

The pic in case they've done it again, was the same as this one except the caption read "Up Yours George"

I tested it after posting and it worked OK, must have a time fuse.

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 08:16 AM

Kids in school no longer carry hankies.
They demand to be supplied with tissues.

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: The Shambles
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 08:36 AM

Not so easy to knot a tissue
Which means that alas our issue
Will not share our fun - but instead

When caught out in the rain
Will just look silly and only complain
With a soggy old Kleen-Ex - upon their head

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 11:57 AM

That link to bobad's pic worked fine for me....but when I disabled my Proxomitron program that filters my browsing, it also got the 'leach' warning....There are pages which have embedded code to prevent direct linking to images which THEY want you to see only if you 'come in the front door'. Proxomitron has scripts that get around the restrictions in many cases.

What the page did was read the location the request came from, (in this case, from Mudcat), and refuse it if it was not from their own site. It will work it you copy the link and paste it in, so that there is no Mudcat link between you and it.

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: bobad
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 12:06 PM

Man,. this stuff is getting more and more complicateder.

Thanks for the explain Bill.

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Snuffy
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 12:50 PM

Bobad's link worked for me last night, but I got the red circle and Leach just now, and then the Up Yours George again when I returned a minute later.

Curiouser and curiouser ....

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: bobad
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 01:00 PM

It works again for me too.

BTW shouldn't it have been LEECH?

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: John O'L
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 08:16 PM

Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy


I think it says pretty much what Bill said.

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 09:41 PM

LtS, we used to use scarves or bandanas that way, over curlers or just to keep our hair up and out of the wind, or on bad-hair days!

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Barry Finn
Date: 16 Sep 06 - 02:40 AM

When I used to work on the roofs (younger days) I'd take my T-shirt off, soak it in cold water & drape it over my head & then tie the short sleeves together in back. It kept my head, neck, ears & back cool & shaded from the sun, no sweat, I could wipe my face cool & it took a while until I need to take it off & do it again. Most of the guys just wore a cap & some bandanas but their ears burnt by he end of he day. Course my body was dusty or dirty or bronzed brown & I only burned once during each summer after that I was (HaHa) golden.

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Wearing knotted hankies
From: Alice
Date: 16 Sep 06 - 10:11 AM

knotted hankies = British thing. Never have seen it except in that photo posted upthread.