# Blue-Jeans Question: That Little Pocket **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 12, 2008, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217 "2008-09-12T02:56:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/61 "2008-09-12T19:43:50Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > It was really that small? In movies, it looks so big when the engineer or conductor whips it out to look at it. I have several pocket watches, and none of them fit in that little pocket. The largest has about a 2-inch diameter; the railroad watches I’ve seen in movies are huge. ---
**Author:** ![Caractacus\_Pott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Caractacus\_Pott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caractacus_Pott)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/62 "2008-09-13T18:43:27Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > It was really that small? In movies, it looks so big when the engineer or conductor whips it out to look at it. **Siam Sam** , In those movies, is the conductor by any chance [Flava Flav](http://entimg.msn.com/i/gal/Undressed1020/FlavaFlav_BrigitteNielsen_273x400.jpg)? [chuckle] ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/63 "2008-09-13T21:01:38Z")
> [@Ragiel](#): > > Wait, somebody makes women’s jeans that button toward the left? I just checked my small but well-loved jeans collection, and it’s not Levi’s, Lee’s, Wrangler’s, or Gloria’s. > > Not saying no jeans designer ever reversed the fly on their women’s styles, but as far as I know the classic jeans all use the original guy-type closing. > > Why fix something that’s not broke? 🙂 What does “button towards the left” mean? All of my jeans have the button sewn on the right side of the zipper flap, with the buttonhole on the left (directions are as if I am wearing them looking down.) I glanced at some men’s jeans in the store today and they close exactly the same way. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/64 "2008-09-13T21:54:08Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > clothing with buttons, therefore you must also have servants. The servants dressed the woman of the house while facing her, so the buttons were opposite so as to be “un-reversed” to them. If buttons were only for the rich, why would the servants be used to them being a certain way?. For them “reversed” should be normal. I want my slaves adapting to me, not the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/65 "2008-09-13T22:00:16Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > Condoms. The question was raised in the Q&A pages of a daily UK newspaper, pretty much all of the answers said the same, for a condom. ---
**Author:** ![Ragiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6de8d8/32.png) [@Ragiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ragiel)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2008, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/66 "2008-09-14T05:19:01Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > What does “button towards the left” mean? All of my jeans have the button sewn on the right side of the zipper flap, with the buttonhole on the left (directions are as if I am wearing them looking down.) I glanced at some men’s jeans in the store today and they close exactly the same way. Button toward the left (looking downward) means the button is on the left side and the buttonhole is brought over it to fasten. My jackets (women’s) fasten that way, my husband’s the other. All the jeans I can remember wearing have the button placed on the right, like the men’s. So, shirts and coats for women are reversed (relative to the men’s counterpart) but jeans remain staunchly unisex. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2008, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/67 "2008-09-14T05:26:20Z")
> [@Sapo](#): > > I want my slaves adapting to me, not the other way around. But they weren’t slaves, a manservent isn’t a slave, but more a hired hand. Slaves don’t get consideration, but an employee should get the benefit of the extra effort. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2008, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/68 "2008-09-14T07:03:42Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > This site says [it’s a holdover](http://www.gmtplusnine.com/2007/05/18/a-more-perfect-union/) from the days of pocket watches. I’ve usually heard it called a coin pocket. Generations ago in the U.S., before inflation had pretty much rendered coins useless except for giving change, it must have been pretty useful to have a place where you could stash a few coins and have them readily available. Go back far enough and you might be lucky enough to a gold coin or two in there. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2008, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/69 "2008-09-14T07:16:55Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > The question was raised in the Q&A pages of a daily UK newspaper, pretty much all of the answers said the same, for a condom. So you put it in there, but end up _not_ having the opportunity to use it, and then you forget it’s there and your mother/wife finds it while she’s doing the laundry … ---
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2008, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/70 "2008-09-14T07:48:14Z")
> [@Ragiel](#): > > Wait, somebody makes women’s jeans that button toward the left? I just checked my small but well-loved jeans collection, and it’s not Levi’s, Lee’s, Wrangler’s, or Gloria’s. > > Not saying no jeans designer ever reversed the fly on their women’s styles, but as far as I know the classic jeans all use the original guy-type closing. > > Why fix something that’s not broke? 🙂 Yeah, I wear both men’s and women’s jeans (nothing kinky, just a trick I discovered; no need to pay for Italian stuff, domestic women’s jeans are cut the same) and the button is on the same side. So that makes me think they just coppied them for the lady folk.\* I’m not yet 30, and I’ve always heard it called a watch pocket, for what it’s worth. But, I think there are a couple of questions that need to be answered: 1. Did the early Levi’s for California gold miners have said pocket? 2. Was the target market likely to own a watch? If the answers are yes and no, then I’m not sure we are right. \*I know why women carry big ass purses. Their jeans pockets aren’t even big enough to get your hands in. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2008, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/71 "2008-09-14T13:55:29Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I thought of pocket watches, but I don’t believe pocket watches were really that small. I carry [my pocket watch](http://www.rei.com/product/691889?cm_mmc=cse_froogle-_-datafeed-_-product-_-691889&mr:trackingCode=45B537F5-2D80-DD11-873B-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA) in that pocket, and it fits perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/72 "2008-09-14T15:18:19Z")
In my college days, it held a one hit pipe and a mini-Bic lighter. These days it holds coins, Altoids and sometimes Excedrin. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/73 "2008-09-14T16:02:39Z")
> [@Cluricaun](#): > > But they weren’t slaves, a manservent isn’t a slave, but more a hired hand. Slaves don’t get consideration, but an employee should get the benefit of the extra effort. Yeah, yeah, I know. Please dismiss my lame throwaway joke. Still, could they afford clothes with buttons on their salary? And if they were provided to them to make them look good while serving, then it should be their clothes who have the inverted buttons. Right? ---
**Author:** ![drpepper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@drpepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drpepper)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2008, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/74 "2008-09-14T21:33:06Z")
Gosh I’m surprise no one’s posted the anser to the original question yet: it’s for a pocket watch. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217/75 "2008-09-14T21:35:14Z")
It’s for Pocketwatch by Duran Duran… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-jeans-question-that-little-pocket/463217.md?page=3)