OK, this is one of the most vile things I can think of: Carrying a nasty, wadded up, yucky handkerchief in your pocket! Sick! I see old men use them all the time. They pull the nasty goober-ridden thing out and HONK their noses into it. Bleagghh!!! Gross! Makes me want to puke! And then, they roll it back up and stick they slimy rag in their pockets again! Barf!!! Hello?? Have you ever heard of disposable tissues??? Sheesh!
What do you guys think?
I usually carry one of those buck-apiece, made-in-China bandannas around in my back pocket between May and September. I don’t use 'em to blow my schnozz, I agree that that’s why God made Kleenex. But I’ve found that it makes the summer heat and humidity more tolerable if I’m able to wipe clean my fevered brow once in a while, and I don’t have to use a shirt-sleeve.
At the end of the day, I throw it in the laundry hamper along with my other perspiration-drenched apparel, and I start out with a fresh bandanna the next day. If I forget to pocket one, the newsstand on the corner will cheerfully sell me a new one along with my TIMES and DAILY NEWS.
Oh, and they’re great to have on hand if you’re spending the day with your children. MY kids are always letting their ice-cream drip, or sneezing and looking ruefully up at me with the lower half of their faces covered with mucus. On days I spend with my kids, I carry at least two. In a variety of snappy colors.
A gentleman always has a neat pocket square in his jacket, more for the appearance (and for Ike’s uses), rather than for nose-blowing. Color-coordinated with his jacket, of course.
Ike, didn’t you LOVE the News’ headline yesterday? “HICKS NIX KNICKS TIX!” I really gotta hand them that one.
I think they make for good emergency snot nets in the event of a sudden sneeze, but you’re right Dem. I’m not going to carry anything in my pocket that I’ve been blowing my nose in.
My Nanny was born in 1913. She used to tell me the most wonderful stories about growing up in rural Indiana. One day she was telling me how the girls had to do all the laundry on a washboard in the yard on Thursdays, then the ironing on Friday. I knew she had 11 total in her family with 6 brothers. I said “Nanny didn’t you hate having to scrub out your brothers squeege stained underware by hand?” She said “No baby, it was their damned snot rags I couldn’t stand!”. Guess someone agrees with you, and my Nanny was pretty cool.
Needs2know
Not quite. Kleenex was introduced by the Kimberly-Clark company in 1924. God’s influence was strictly behind the scenes.
Kimberly-Clark History
And Kimberly-Clark (aka God, in Ukulele Ike’s view) did not create them to store your mucus in.
This is the Straight Dope Message Board, people, and don’t you forget it. 
Arnold, you are just TOO cool!
My unhusband uses handkerchiefs and they are disgusting! I had never heard anyone use it to wipe their brow before. THAT at least makes sense. But, for the life of me, I don’t get the crusty cloth in the three piece suit! I’d love to know what the bosses think when he pulls that thing out to use!
When we used to talk about it, he admitted that he’d rather use Kleenex like he does when he’s home, but refuses to have a box at work, ‘it looks too dainty’. What, a revolting, stuck together piece of cloth looks macho???
I have to go use my Purell now, just thinking on this subject is making me feel yucky!!
I think it must be something from the old days that these old guys can’t let go of.
A good many of my clients are old WWII soldiers and a pretty good chunk of them carry slimy old rags.
Speaking of chunks, I think I need to go blow a few.
Eve’s right, as usual, with the exception that it’s my belief that the utilitarian hanky should be in some out-of-the-way pocket. The pocket square up front is of course for lending, with utmost discretion and a small smile, to a female companion, in the event that, for example, she should have need of it to dab at a brimming eye because, alas, one has been called away for a time by one’s manly duty, and she fears she may never see one again, despite one’s protestations to the contrary (in this instance one may “forget” to have one’s lady companion return the handkerchief, that she may have a memento of one to treasure until one’s triumphant return).
Also:
While this is absolutely correct almost all of the time, a notable exception has been made in the case of French fashion. A French gentleman’s pocket square is always white. He never knows when he will walk out of the cafe to find that France has been conquered again, and will want to be prepared at all times with a white hanky to wave above his head, that he may surrender with both speed and elan.
Hey Uke, you better read this:
Hanky Codes
Personally< I think they are pretty darn gross.
Cloth handkerchiefs are basically disgusting. They’re sort of a generational thing, and a class-cue. If one has a stay at home drudge who launders and irons obsessively, they can be–minimally–sanitary.
My dad always carried cloth handkerchiefs, and let me tell you, they’re a pain. They require immediate and ruthless laundering, and the cheap ones disintegrate quickly. IMO, their continued use (by those under 60 or so) are so snobbish and precious the whole thing is just more repellent.
Frankly, they’re a testament to the “good ol’ days” of cheap labor. The real exception was noted by Ike; a cloth bandana etc. used to pat away sweat is fine. Tossing them into a washer isn’t all that different from clothing worn on a hot day. But as receptacles for nasal discharges? Bleeech.
FWIW, Kleenex etc. now sells tidy little resealable pouches so you can pull out a hanky, use it in whatever way you see fit and then throw it away!
Dang, ain’t it great that we can collectively solve The Great Human Issues like this? (grin, wink)
Veb
I’ve seen men drag crumpled up hankies out of back pockets and wave them in the air, rumple them back up a bit and then blow their noses. Frightening and disgusting, like some kind of flag of truce against???
One on my older brothers resolved this problem to his satisfaction by book folding the hankie: fold in half, then again the long way, then in half and in half again to make a neat square. Look at it from one side (edge) and you can see how it open up almost into pages - that’s what he does, blows his nose into this square one page at a time.
He claims it last a long time and that it goes neatly into his pocket without having to rumple to put it away or wave around to get a useable space. Always looks clean, he says. Never need ironing, just re-fold and stack.
And I send him large boxes of large tissue every year for Christmas. I suspect that one day I’ll go to visit and see stacks and stack of tissue boxes holding up one corner of the garage, barn or both.
The sight of someone using a hankie makes me physically ill. Too gross!!! Guys, GET SOME DAMN KLEENEX!!
My hankie story - once when I was a juvenile delinquent some friends and I were walking through a store, not shopping, just hanging out. While we were in there, I let loose a big wad into my hankie and stuck it back in my pocket. We didn’t buy anything, and as we left the store, the manager stopped us and accused us of shoplifting, falsely. Pointed at me - “I saw you put something in your pocket.” “Just my handkerchief.” I took it out carefully, and he grabbed it out of my hand and started going through it with his fingers. We never hung out there after that.
I have to agree with the OP; My dad did this, And I have memories of mom making go dig them out from beside the couch cushions on wash day. YUCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHH!
I think I’ve been scarred for life…
Oh my goodness…terrible memories…
A few years ago I was at a local Friendly’s with my grandfather (who will be 84 years old this year.) Well, good ol’ Grandpa felt the urge to empty that big nose of his, and right there without missing a beat he pulls out this filthy snot rag and starts to blow vigorously. Loud. Really loud. People turn around from all around the restaurant with the look of disgust on there face as I try and hide my head in my lap. The noise stops. I look up to assess the damage, and he starts again! This time, however, he uses a little more force and the snot rag goes flying into some guy’s soup! The fellow was sitting there with this completely incredulous look, my grandfather was totally oblivious to it, and, well, I was FLYING for the door…
I wonder how it turned out. 
Bri
Yippee! I’ve never killed a thread before!
As teenagers, porr white trash that we were, my friends and I all carried something to blow our noses on in cold and flu season.
The most awful of all was Matt (names have been changed to protect the guilty). Matt, who was the posessor of the vehicle among us, was fond of using a sock for a hankie.
The sock would remain in his car for weeks on end, in a constant duty cycle. If you touched it after it had spent time drying, you might cut yourself on the encrusted snot.
Granted, this was bad, but even worse… Tony used it as well. That’s right, it was a community snot-sock.
::gagging at the memory::
If I listen really hard, I can almost hear it…“Hey, Tony, gimme that sock, I gotta snot.”
Ok, now I am really going to hurl…
Lesson: Too poor to buy Kleenex? Next time you use a public restroom, roll a bunch of tissue up and stick it in your pocket. Poor is not an excuse.
I do have a small confession to make. I like to cycle. I usually take rides anywhere from 20-60 miles. When you’re riding hard, especially in allergy season, you build up a lot of snot. Carrying and stopping to use tissue just isn’t practical. Solution? Snot rockets! Woo hoo! Hold one nostril and violently blow! Yeehaw! Of course I would never do this when anyone was near, mostly out on old country roads. The really bad part is, occasionally, if your technique is not perfected, there is some residual around the nose. This is where the [absorbent] back of the cycling glove comes in handy. Mind you, the gloves are washed at the end of each ride, along with the other gear. It’s still gross though. Sorry mom.
Democritus, I was told that was the “Army Way” to blow your nose. Gross and probably a long lasting blot on the enviornment, pre-curser to agent orange. Yuk.
What about that T-Shirt commercial on TV - the gal wipes her tears off on the guy’s t-shirt and then blows her nose as well. Gross as that is, I laugh every time I see it.