Fels Naptha Changes again.

[jamiel]

My mom used Spic and Span--remember in the 70s clearly it had two types of granules mixed---a green spray-dried granule (doubtless the surfactant/fragrance/color) and a needle-like crystal (pretty evidently the TSP). I think later on when they went to a non-phosphate formula the difference in the granule type was less clear.

I've mentioned before---my grandfather worked on early detergents in the '40s...P&G along with all the other "soapers" mixed and matched their chemicals and formulas to get the desired characteristics...whatever would let them get a slight advantage in the marketplace.

 

[stan]

Jamie

I’ll bet ur grandad was a weath of information. Hope he shared some of it with you!
The update on this new Fels is…I was on my way out to the alley (where my garbage can is) to throw the bar out.. I passed by a skunk hole out in my yard..Ive had to just live with it cuz no matter what I’ve tried to get them to leave, they always come back.
Anyway..I said to my self..”self” throw this horrid smelling bar down that skunk hole! See if this will drive them away. Well, they came out that night and they ain’t been back since!
So maybe I found a use for new Fels Naptha.

 

[mattl]

We always had Spic and Span around growing up.  I might have a brick of it down the basement, but after the formula change I rarely used it.

 

I'm currently working my way through a NOS 5 gallon container of Red Max Pro hard floor cleaner #4.  Does a great job in all my floor scrubbers, a little goes a long way, no rinsing needed.

 

[jamiel]

My grandfather was funny--he worked in industry most of his life but only was in his element when he started being an adjunct professor after retiring.

A couple "I remembers"...he wore contact lenses after cataract surgery in the mid'60s (i.e. early). He had a bottle of a specific brand dishwashing liquid down in his workroom (can't remember which) which he decanted into the little pink bottles of contact lens cleaner...it was just surfactant, as he'd say.

My grandmother gave my mom a vegetable steamer when she was cleaning out one time, and realized she missed it after she gave it to us. My grandfather and I did experiments on whether we could make a steamer suspended on the rim of a kettle out of the bottom of a Clorox bottle (it seemed like we could---it didn't soften too much).

He did some of the early chemistry around Tide and All and actually worked for Monsanto in the late 40s in Dayton, Ohio (which apparently was the plant where they made All). My grandmother spoke of showing off some of the prototypes to other housewives when they had a dinner party---the bubbles which weren't so much a thing when you used soap to wash dishes. She always said they had work to do on the scenting of those products...they didn't smell very good even though they cleaned well.

 

[gyrafoam]

Stan------

Skunks HATE moth-balls. Just dump a cup or so in their burrow and they will move-out immediately!

 

[ea56]

Stan,

About 4 years ago our next door neighbor had a skunk take up residence under his deck during mating season and it had a litter there. It stunk to high heaven! We tried everything that we could find reading online to get rid of the skunk family. We even poured a gallon on ammonia into the hole that the skunk had used to get under the deck and that had no effect whatsoever.

Finally, what ultimately got her to move was our neighbor Richard getting some wildcat scat at a place near our county dump that sells it and he placed it under the deck and the next day Mama and her kids were gone.

I wish you good luck getting rid of the skunk.

Eddie

 

[good-shepherd]

My mom feeds the skunk (and other critters) that come around at night.

Its sort of like paying protection money to the mafia, they may skunk up the neighbors houses but not ours.

 

[dermacie]

I love powdered Spic and Span I have two boxes currently just in case.  It cleaned my laundry tub that is a plastic made it like new and removed rust stains too.