Today, to be what they call 'repressed' is a...
Today, to be what they call 'repressed' is a source of shame to people--as not to be repressed used to be
"That is true, that is trueLet me tell you about Al HabermanYou want to talk about the old-style world and what used to be, let's talk about AlA wonderful fella, Al, a handsome fellaGot rich cutting glovesYou could in those daysA husband and a wife who had any ambition could get a few skins and make some glovesEnded up in a small room, two men cutting, a couple of women sewing, they could make the gloves, they could press them and ship themThey made money, they were their own bosses, they could work sixty hours a weekWay, way back when Henry Ford was paying the unheard-of sum of a dollar a day, a fine table cutter would make five dollars a dior logo dayBut look, in those days it was nothing for an ordinary woman to own twenty, twenty-five pair of glovesA woman used to have a glove wardrobe, different gloves for every outfit--different colors, different styles, different lengthsA woman wouldn't go outside without a pair in any weatherIn those days it wasn't unusual for a woman to spend two, three hours at the glove counter and try on thirty pair of gloves, and the lady behind the desk had a sink and she would wash her hands between each colorIn a fine ladies' glove, we had quarter sizes into the fours and up to eight and a halfGlove cutting is a wonderful trade--was, anywayEverything now is 'was' A cutter like Al always had a shirt and a tie onIn those days a cutter never worked without a shirt and louis vuitton taschen a tieYou could work at seventy-five and eighty years old tooThey could start in the way Al did, at fifteen, or even younger, and they could go to eightySeventy was a spring chickenAnd they could work at their leisure, Saturday and SundayThese people could work constantlyMoney to send their kids to schoolMoney to fix up their homes nicelyAl could take a piece of leather, say to me, for a gag, 'What do you want, Lou, eight and nine-sixteenths?' And just snip it off without a ruler, measuring it perfectly with just his eyeThe cutter was the prima donnaBut all that pride of craftsmanship is gone, of courseOf the actual table cutters who could cut a sixteen-button white glove, I think Al Haberman may have been the last guy in America who could do itThe hermes tas long glove, of course, vanished' There was the eight-button glove which became very popular, silk-lined, but that was gone by '65We were already taking gloves that were longer, chopping off the tops, making shorties, and using the top to make another gloveFrom this point where the thumb seam is, every inch on out they used to put a button, so we still talk, in terms of length, of buttonsThank God in i960 Jackie Kennedy walked out there with a little glove to the wrist, and a glove to the elbow, and a glove above the elbow, and a pillbox hat, and all of a sudden gloves were in style againFirst Lady of the glove industryWore a size six and a halfPeople in the glove industry were praying to that ladyShe herself stocked up in Paris, but so what? That woman rolex chain put the ladies' fine leather glove back on the mapBut when they assassinated Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy left the White House, that and the miniskirt was the end of the ladies' fashion gloveThe assassination of John FKennedy and the arrival of the miniskirt, and together that was the death knell for the ladies' dress gloveTill then it was a twelve-month, year-round businessThere was a time when a woman would not go out unless she wore a pair of gloves, even in the spring and the summerNow the glove is for cold weather or for driving or for sports--"
"Lou," his wife said, "nobody is talking about--"
"Let me finish, pleaseDon't interrupt me, pleaseAl Haberman was a great readerNo schooling but he loved to readHis favorite author was Sir Walter cartier must 21 S