Bobo and the Bloomers(Part 5)

During The Great Depression, people had to wear it out, use it up, or make do.  Inner tubes were a valuable commodity, used for everything from cutting into strips to use as elastic for clothes, making overshoes, to wrapping pipes.  They were the duct tape of the era.  One of the favorite stories about Cousin Bobo demonstrated his excellent taste and smooth ways with the ladies.  Even better, when Bobo had a good story to share, he wasn’t concerned at all about tender ears.  My favorite was a tale of girl-chasing when he was a teen-ager back in 1940.  He and his buddies were walking down the streets of the nearest good size city, a pleasure they didn’t often enjoy, living forty miles out in the sticks.  A fetching young lady and her friends were walking ahead of them.  The prettiest of them smiled at him a time or two, leading Bobo to think he might have a chance, especially since he had a dollar in his pocket.  She strutted along bewitching ahead of him, when the inner-tube strip serving as elastic in the waist of her bloomers snapped, allowing her long-legged dainties to drop to the street.

Appalled at her misfortune, she kicked her bloomers to the side and kept walking, as though she hadn’t noticed.  Ever the gentleman, Bobo found a stick, chased after her, and attempted to return her undies.  She beat him with her purse.  He didn’t get the girl that day.

For more of Cousin Bobo see https://nutsrok.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/footloose-and-fancy-free-part-1-4