It is not "Plastics" it is "Gloves"

In the summer of 1964 I had a job at New York Telephone at 140 West Street in Manhattan. It was a hot summer and it was just after the death of Kennedy. It was the first summer male employees were not mandated to wear hats to and from work. Not owning a hat I was happy. However they still required women employees to wear hats and gloves. So each morning there was this mass flow of men in suits, clean shaven, white shirts, ties, polished shoes, and women with hats and white summer gloves.

Now yesterday as I went into New York, I wore my leather gloves. They serve several purposes. First they give me a good grip on rails so I am now pummeled by fast moving delivery people trying to catch a train. Second, they inhibit any impulse to place one's hands on one's face. Third, they tend to mitigate any infestation of one's epidermis with various micro-organisms running around the filth of the New York Subway system.

Now as I looked about I was the only creature wearing any form of hand protection. In fact there was a young lady, after touching everything as she made her way through the turnstile, stood on the platform, opens a wrapped sandwiches, and slowly consumed it carefully transferring each morsel to her face, along with God knows what.

So my modest proposal is simple: wear gloves!