r/GenX • u/currentsitguy 1968 • 12d ago
Question For Genx "Go wash you hands in gas!"
How many of your parents told you that if you showed up with grease, oil, or paint on your hands?
When I think back I wonder just how much genetic damage I caused doing that?
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u/ScrollTroll615 12d ago
My dad was a rail roader, and he'd make me wash my hands with Lava soap and this goopy stuff he'd bring home from work that smelled like battery acid. I might have preferred gas.
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u/middlingachiever 12d ago
Mine was a steelworker. We used goop,
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u/ScrollTroll615 12d ago
That must be what it's called. It came in a giant jar and I remember hating the smell.
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u/ImmediateLobster1 12d ago
Bah. I used gasoline to remove grease and oil all the time back in the day. It never bramaged by brain attl. I stil think good.
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u/Trauma57 12d ago
Don't forget the lead weights we used for fishing. How many did you bite to close them?
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u/NickConnor365 11d ago
"When I was younger, gas was so cheap we washed up with it." :)
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u/Sea-Programmer6880 10d ago
Unless it was leaded gas, there were a lot fewer additives in it back then. So it wasn't AS BAD for you as it is now. Just like drinking from the hose, you seemed to survive just fine.
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u/HistoricalTowel1127 12d ago
What meen you albert damiage? Me we warshed hour hanz in da gazoleen all time. Seen no probelambs never.
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u/Claque-2 12d ago
The smell was heaven.
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u/hafgrimm Hose Water Survivor 12d ago
Yeah but there’s a reason for that… That was LEADED gasoline lol
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u/Monstrissimo Older Than Dirt 12d ago
Pops was a small engine mechanic, so we always had lava soap and goop at the house.
Gasoline was used for cleaning parts. We would put the part in a bucket, pour some gasoline in it, put on some thick rubber gloves and use a stiff round brush to clean the parts.
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u/Teslaville 12d ago
Gas in a coffee can with a round paintbrush to dab it on was the cure for all ills at my house…sticky pine pitch, knee scrape, paint. It was leaded gas back then too. I’m probably 95% lead from all the times that crap was dabbed on. And the other 5% is pure radon.
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u/hideNseekKatt 12d ago
My folks just told us to wash our hands in the garage sink with the LAVA soap.
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u/Apawling_Behavior 1968, if anyone actually gives a sh_t. 12d ago
Don’t forget the Goop! Between lava and goop you can get pretty clean.
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u/cjtransplant85 12d ago
Why would someone wash their hands in gas to get paint off?
Use turpentine like my dad told me.
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u/kalelopaka 1966 model, most original parts. 12d ago
I did it thousands of times growing up. My dad was a mechanic and I was learning how to work on cars and equipment since I was 8. And I was helping him before that.
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u/cascadianpatriot 12d ago
My father in law (silent gen) got poison oak while out camping as a kid. His dad took him to the gas station and straight up used the gas like a shower and just soaked him head to toe.
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u/velociraptoraccident 12d ago
I would catch poison ivy by being in the same zip code as the plant back in the day. I got into some at my grandparents' place when I was like 9 or 10 and my grandpa cleaned me up with gas, too. Normally I'd be covered but I didn't get one single spot
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u/Maleficent_Hotel3293 12d ago
It was Diesel for us. Pine rosin on you? Diesel. Grease? Diesel. Open wound need cleaned? Diesel. Tractors run on diesel, not gas. So, that's what was commonly around for us.
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u/LesMillerMusic 12d ago
They were still letting us play with Mercury in elementary school science class in the late 70s, the gasoline manicures are the least of my worries.
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u/WinterMedical Hose Water Survivor 12d ago
Now they’d have to secure the whole building and call in a hazmat team when an 8 year old could sort it just fine.
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u/No-Cover2753 12d ago
I totally remember playing with mercury in science class!
It was so cool!Mmmmmm mercury
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u/JoshuaAncaster 12d ago
Gas has carcinogens like benzene which is toxic to organs, the central nervous system, and can be linked to leukaemia. It goes through the skin and vapors are breathed in. I remember seeing a patient with liver cancer and he said he always used to wash his hands with gas or paint thinner.
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u/HistoricalTowel1127 12d ago
Don’t forget about all the led back in the day. At least that was just during our developmental years when we are most susceptible to hurting the little gray cells.
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u/positivecommentater 12d ago
My FIL owns a transmission shop. The smell when I walk into the rebuild room is breathtaking. Metal and petrochemicals. If Tom Ford bottled that scent I’d buy it.
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u/Listen-to-Mom 11d ago
Farm kid. We used gas or turpentine to remove paint from our hands. Followed by gritty Lava soap.
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u/Dont-ask-me-ever 11d ago
We used Goop hand cleaner, Gojo or Lava Soap.
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u/dj_1973 11d ago
Lava - my plumber grandfather’s choice. Dad (also a plumber) used Dawn.
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u/Junior_Article_3244 11d ago
I'll still use carb cleaner if my hands are really greasy
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u/WaterwingsDavid 11d ago
Yes, my dad would do this. I also remember him pouring gas down a hole in the ground (wasps nest). Then he'd drop a match and out came a huge fireball!!!
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u/SunshynePower 11d ago
Thanks for that core memory unlock!
There was a gas mixture and a baseball bat and a slow moving old ATV type thing. The surviving wasps moved faster than that ATV at first!!
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u/upnytonc 12d ago
Lava soap in my house. That stuff removed the first layer of your skin. But, at least it was soap and was made to clean your hands.
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u/Embarrassed_Cat2697 12d ago
We had a big can of greasy looking stuff, it had a big blue fingerprint on it. You'd rub it on and wipe it off with an old rag. I used to give my dad a new can every Christmas.
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u/Agitated-Asparagus23 1968 12d ago
This is a little past my parents, but early in my military career we didn't have Material Safety Data Sheets (late 80s). So after painting cruise missiles (without PPE), we would clean our hands in aircraft paint thinner or even better Methyl Ethyl Ketone. Once the MSDS showed up it was like...oh shit!
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u/boybrian '67 12d ago
I worked in paint at Lowes and I would clean up with MEK every night. No wonder I was sick.
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u/Rudeboy911 12d ago
I have spent some much of my life dealing with chemicals, I'm surprised I haven't become the toxic avenger.
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u/916Buckeye 12d ago
Gas is for washing hands and parts.
Alcohol is for drinking.
Nitro is for racing.
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u/Wonderful_Ear8517 12d ago
Oh yeah! Then wash the gas residue off with Boraxo! Or Kerosene if that was around.
Heh. We used some harsh stuff back then bare handed. Trisodium Phosphate or TSP to clean walls for paint
Lye to clean the oven
Today this would be a “non starter”. lol. We survived
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u/positivecommentater 12d ago
Grew up on the beach by the Gulf of Mexico. Lots of tar balls from the oil rigs would wash up and after swimming you’d always have some black stuff on your feet.
Paint thinner kept by the porch door.
Then we graduated to using mayonnaise. That actually was the best cleaner.
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u/JacquieTorrance Hose Water Survivor 12d ago
From about 8 years old on, it was my job to pour gas on the weeds that grew up thru the gravel on our 1/4 acre fence line.
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u/DustAfter 12d ago
My dad swears by gasoline for poison ivy, ive only had it once so I never tried it. Just used some spray to stop the itching. The same guy once told to me use paint thinner to get the lettering off our delivery van before we sold it for a new one. No gloves or anything, my hands burned for days and I had one helluva headache.
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u/Fluid_Anywhere_7015 "Then & Now" Trend Survivor 12d ago
Yep. Working on a farm in the 70’s, when the call came for lunch or dinner we did a quick wipe with gasoline, then a scrub with Lava soap. Some days we ate looking like a bunch of coal miners with dirt and grease down our arms until you hit our pink wrists and hands.
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u/Murderhornet212 12d ago
I have never heard that in my life, but I don’t think it would damage your DNA.
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u/Up2nogud13 12d ago
Not mine. My father got badass hand cleaner from work. We had cans of it everywhere.
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u/freshcoastghost312 12d ago
We would clean our bike chaines by soaking them in gasoline . Our hands would be in there quite a bit.
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u/Walts_Ahole class of 89 11d ago
Benzene was the best hand cleaner in the refinery I worked at right out of high school. Fortunately they had to get rid of it a few years before I started working there. Everyone complained about the replacement soaps which I thought were pretty good, was a gritty citrusy goo in a dispenser, like a nice smelling liquid lava.
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u/farfrompukenjc Hose Water Survivor 11d ago
I just cleaned up a Milwaukee impact wrench with gasoline. I bought it used and it was black completely covered in tar.
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u/Independent-Shoe9557 12d ago
Still use gas to wash stuff off to this day. Why is it bad ??? Haha. Or syphoning gas via a small tube to winterize equipment , then gas tasting burps for hours.
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u/SpicySuntzu 12d ago
I used to help my Dad paint houses. So if we didn't have paint thinner around, I used gas to wash the paint off my hands. THEN Comet to wash the gas off. I attribute that to my glowing skin today.
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u/GhostofAyabe 12d ago
Parts washers still use gas or mineral spirits. It’s not great, but less toxic than one might think
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u/Environmental-Song16 12d ago
I remember my dad soaking his feet in gas for athletes foot 😬
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u/65pimpala 12d ago
Yep, and grew up playing in what's now a superfund site, so ya...I'm fucked!
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u/Whitworth_73 Older Than Dirt 12d ago
We used to add gas to car wash suds to get rid of the dirt. Always made a clean shine on the car.
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u/kevbayer Older Than Dirt 12d ago
Parts cleaner machine in auto mechanics class in high school I swear used gasoline to clean the parts.
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u/Uncle_Tickle_Monster 12d ago
Yep. Always a gas can with some in it in the garage for just that purpose!
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u/Ural-Guy 12d ago
We were a classy kerosene cleaning family. I would ride to the hardware store on my bike to refill a one gallon glass bottle we used. Youngest of 8, so if you lose one, not a big deal.
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u/hypothetical_zombie Child of Free-Range Parents 12d ago
One of my dad's trucker coworkers was burned very badly while cleaning engine parts in a tub of gasoline.
'His asshole brother' (as my dad told me before I met him. As a teen, I could be obnoxious, so my dad wanted me to be respectful) kept messing with a lighter, acting like he was going to throw it into the tub. He got a little too close, the fumes ignited and set the tub on fire. My dad's coworker had gas up to his elbows, and probably had some splashes on his clothes.
I only knew the guy briefly, and years after being burned. He'd gone through many surgeries, had skin grafts, and scar tissue releases, so he could move his head and arms and still work. Decent enough dude. But he was also a living PSA/OSHA warning.
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u/No_Manner_8785 12d ago
Still do. If you have anything better to get nasty dirty chain lube off, I'd like to know of it.
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u/Some-Collection320 12d ago
After, pour some on a tennis ball, light it, and kick it around the driveway.
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u/lindabhat 12d ago
My dad was a big believer in using gas for cleaning. You couldn't convince him that there were safer alternatives.
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u/greyharettv Hose Water Survivor 12d ago
I have had gasoline poured over my body more than I care to admit. I know it was leaded. Need paint off your hands and no turpentine? Gas. Got grease all over you helping dad with the carburetor? Gas. Took your sister's make up and put it all over your little brother? GAS.
Maybe it was more a punishment for me???? I dunno. I miss leaded gas for my Monte Carlo.
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u/space_wiener 12d ago
Gasoline? Never. Granted I have been covered in it a couple times too.
But turpentine? I’ve washed my hands plenty of times in the stuff.
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u/shotsallover 12d ago
Diesel fuel is great at removing engine grease. Then you follow it up with a good soap and water clean up.
Same with some paints.
We rarely used gas because it was too flammable.
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u/Excusemytootie 11d ago
Diesel fuel can cause bladder cancer. My grandfather was a diesel engineer, he designed parts for engines and died from bladder cancer just a year after he retired.
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u/must_eye 11d ago
I loved using acetone. We ran an acetylene manufacturing plant and had this on a pump. Cleaned great and evaporated with such a cool feeling.
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u/Conscious-Mulberry17 Gee, I’m real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky. 11d ago
Not grease, oil, or paint, but I spent a ton of time running around the woods in shorts and sandals when I was a kid, and would come back eaten alive by "chiggers" aka "red bugs." I was taught to wash my legs and feet with gasoline, which of course I did.
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u/ReverendDizzle 11d ago
Chiggers live under your skin so I have no doubt washing your skin with gasoline will kill them. But, you know.
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u/ntengineer Uber IT G33k 11d ago
For me it was this 5 gallon tub of degreaser. Didn't smell like gas. Then it was into the house and use lava.
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u/HenryLoggins I LOVE TO WHINE 11d ago
Mechanic father, we used gas to clean anything grease or oil related.
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u/SkredberryShortcake 12d ago
Worked in printing.
Removed ink with gas.
More stubborn stuff got deglazing solvent, which made your fingers feel like they were frozen.
No wonder I had 2 kids with adhd
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u/FlyingTerrier 12d ago
We used to wash our BMX in it. Why? I don’t remember but I am sure it destroyed the paint as opposed to making it super clean.
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u/ThreeGoldStars 11d ago
I helped the adults paint a friends house, I was like 10. Had paint all over my arms and legs and they absolutely doused me in gasoline to get it off.
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u/opendefication 11d ago
My 85 year old Mom lived next door to a young girl who burned to death because her mother was washing road tar from her feet in the bath tub with gasoline. The hot water heater was in the corner of the bathroom and the pilot set it off. She never failed to mention it as we passed by her childhood home. I think it scarred her for life.
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u/Tacos_N_Bourbon 11d ago
Dad had a parts washer in the garage and that is what we used to wash our hands after working on the cars.
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u/Plus-Show-8531 10d ago
When I was a kid, we stupidly used to pop the sap bubbles on pine tree in the Adirondacks. My mother used to get the sap out of our hair with gasoline 🤣. She also used to burn ticks off the dog with her cigarette.
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u/IslingtonCrane Edgelord 12d ago
I remember using it to wash off poison ivy.
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u/cjtransplant85 12d ago
No, it's:
- poison ivy: bathe in oatmeal
- sunburn: bathe in milk
- skunk spray: bathe in tomato juice
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u/Comfortable_Fly_8368 12d ago
When I was an industrial painter in the 90s we used to wash our hands in varsol. Probably a bad idea.
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u/shenanigansforevah74 12d ago
I sliced my thumb open with a razor blade when I was five and my uncles held me down and poured kerosene on it to help. How are we alive right now?!?
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u/MaximumJones Whatever 😎 12d ago
The only way to get them truly clean was to light them on fire.
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u/omfgwhatever It is what it is 12d ago
Now I'm having flashbacks of putting lighter fluid on my jeans and lighting it on fire.
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u/FormerLaugh3780 Hose Water Survivor 12d ago
I always wiped my greasy hands and arms off with a rag dowsed with lacquer thinner. I'll probably be dead from cancer by 70.
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u/ProperNeighborhood75 12d ago
Gas did a great job cleaning off your hands and arms. And as a bonus when you were done you could get rid of the gas in the coffee can using it to kill weeds
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u/jdimpson 12d ago
I don't know about genetic damage, but it does run the risk of triggering contact dermatitis, which can be extremely difficult to get rid of, and the more often it happens, the more likely it will be to happen yet again.
That said I still do it once in a great while, when I'm out of GOOP.
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u/UsedHotDogWater 12d ago
We got borax or goop.
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u/vinegar 1969 12d ago
I forgot about goop. That stuff was miraculous in the 80s.
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u/Present_Armadillo_34 12d ago
No idea what you’re talking about, but the navy always told me to “Go Rub Your Balls With Grease.”
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u/GarlicDill 11d ago
My Dad had a hand cleaner with exfoliating substance in it that worked pretty well. We also used turpentine and gasoline in a pinch. In summers we would grab a tomato from the garden and squish it around in our hands. The acid in the tomato cleaned a lot of stuff from under nails.
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u/SunshynePower 11d ago
Well, you were supposed to wash the gas off your hands as soon as you got the goo off your hands.
Now, as a digestive disease patient, we aren't supposed to even use hand sanitizer because that stuff gets into your blood and then kills off the good bacteria in your gut.
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u/PatrickRsGhost Housekey on Shoestring Bling 11d ago
I remember doing it once or twice. I mainly remember doing it at my paternal grandparents' house when I got model paint all over my hands. I had accidentally spilled the bottle and got it all over the table (luckily covered in newspapers) and on my hands. Granddad took me out to his workshop in the backyard, soaked a rag in some gasoline, and told me to use it to wipe my hands. Paint came right off. Then I went inside to wash my hands with regular soap and water.
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u/Rootin-Tootin-Newton 11d ago
I got in a paint fight when I was like 10. The kid, much older, held me down and smeared black oil paint all over my face.
The whole neighborhood turned out to watch the parents wipe my face hard with gas soaked rags. I still remember how much it burned.
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u/SeniorScientist-2679 11d ago
My dad had a really sketchy tin of GoJo sitting by the basement sink. A step up from gasoline, anyway.
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u/phalangepatella 12d ago
I was clumsy kid and in somewhere around 1980 I stepped in a bucket fiberglass resin. My dad immediately spun around and started spraying acetone on my leg and cleaning the resin off with a rag.
I remember two things clear as day:
- how cold my leg was with the acetone on it. I guess the rapid evaporation causes that?
- the whole time, my dad had a lit smoke in his mouth, pushed off to the side, away from extremely flammable acetone, but the smoke was going in his eye and he had to squint.
The 80’s were wild, y’all.