Friday, October 27, 2017

Gloves

Photo description: my hands in wheelchair gloves with the fingers all worn out.

I finally did it, I retired my old gloves. It was much harder than you might imagine. I liked the fit and feel of these gloves and they are hard to find replacements for. They are not designed for wheelchair use, but they have protected my hands when pushing and given me good break pads when going down hills and ramps.

These gloves have traveled, The have been the ones that saw me through the transition from being pushed to pushing myself. The have been dependable and reliable and really really durable. When they first began to fray, I began to panic a little. I went to stores where I've purchased them before but they were no longer being carried. I tried out other gloves but they didn't feel even slightly right, or the ones that would be okay, if not great, were in delightful florescent orange, I'm not a orange glove guy.

Finally they reached the state in the picture above. Winter is coming. I finally found a wall of gloves, literally, in Canadian Tire and I was off to the races. This trip is my first with the new gloves.

What am I going to do with the old gloves? Ruby has suggested that somewhere in the world there must be a glove museum and she thinks I should send them there.

Wouldn't that be an awesome idea. The gloves that saw a man work himself to the maximum level of freedom that is possible. It's silly, but I love those gloves and the history we have together.

Joe sees them a little differently.

They're gloves, toss em.

I think he may be right.

6 comments:

ABEhrhardt said...

Toss, yes - but only after storing the story and a photo.

You can't keep everything that has symbolism for you - imagine how full YOUR house would be!

But photos and stories take little space - I'm glad you marked this one.

I'm trying to figure out a format for the 'informal autobiography' - and have millions (lit.) of words already. Daunting.

Enjoy the new ones. Tell them the stories.

Unknown said...

Or tuck them away for a few months until the new gloves are all broken in...maybe then tossing this pair will be ok...they certainly will not be forgotten...this piece is a sort of 'death notice" for them.
clairesmum

Andrea Shettle, MSW said...

You could create your own mini glove museum! Put them in a glass case and display them somewhere in your home!

Having no clue myself about such things because I've never had to try it, but, might there be a way to dye those fluorescent orange gloves into a color more pleasing to you?

Connie said...

Ruby has a great idea. If no one has started the glove museum yet, you could frame them in a shadowbox frame and start the glove museum yourself.

Unknown said...

There is actually a glove museum, in the UK.. (warning, more gloves than you ever wanted to see) http://www.glovecollectioncatalogue.org/bymaterial.html

it might be interesting to send them a pic of your gloves with their story!

Goody said...

Perhaps if not the gloves in a museum, Ruby could paint a portrait of the gloves for you, if she wanted to?