Does anyone remember Rosemary de Camp, no not an impersonator or male illusionist like Hedda Lettuce, but the lady who did the ads for 20 Mule Team Borax on Death Valley Days? Back then, I divided commercials into two groups: Those that showed a washer washing and those that did not. Her commercials usually showed the borax being added to a washer. Earlier, she had appeared as the aunt of Bob Cummings (I swear that is how it is spelled)on the Bob Cummings Show where he played a young photographer renting a room from her. I believe the show started with him holding a camera and saying, "Hold it! I think you're going to like this picture." Then he put the camera up to his face and fired the flash. In re-runs it was called Love That Bob. Ann B. Davis was his assistant waaay before she cooked for the Brady Family. In one episode, Cummings played his grandfather, also a photographer, who still used flash powder, and way too much. By the time he took the picture, the results were predictably hilarious.
Yes, I use borax to keep the underarm area of shirts from getting funky while wearing them even with antipisperant & deodorant. I don't use it as a cleaning booster since I use STPP. Has anyone seen those old nursery sets that had glass jars on a tray? There was always one labeled Boric Acid, which used to be thought of as a pretty benign, weak antiseptic, but that container was always empty. Then decades later, I read of a mother who took her little circumcised baby home and wiped the wound with boric acid every day. The baby died within a week. I think he was disinfected to death and died of boron poisoning. Borax is not the same as boric acid, but they both are related to boron which must give borax some muscle somehow. I just use borax on laundry, not on my body.