two recent handkerchief observations

[launderedlace]

The first of these took place on a train: I was sat opposite a woman who, after a couple of sniffs, produced a neatly folded white handkerchief from her jacket pocket. As she began to gently wipe her nose, I at first assumed that the handkerchief was entirely plain but, as it opened slightly, I could see that one corner was attractively embellished with a fairly large, embroidered and appliqued pale pink flower, additionally adorned with grey/green foliage. Finishing, the woman refolded her handkerchief into its original rectangular format and returned it to her pocket

In a meeting the next day, I noticed a woman sitting a couple of rows in front of me in the process of vigorously wiping her nose, again with a medium-sized white handkerchief. From my perspective, the handkerchief wasn't fully visible, but it definitely had the look of being one that had begun the day in a pristine state (it was now mid-morning) and where two or three previous uses had gotten it to a condition of crumples decidedly winning out over residual neat folds. Several animated wipes and nostril pinches were made using different parts of the handkerchief: fabric twitched and shuddered as the process went on. Then, the crumples even more in the ascendency, this woman also pocketed her handkerchief

Had either woman been asked if they could lend someone a clean handkerchief, might they have responded

'Not really, I'd love to help and have one that was clean this morning, but unfortunately I've since had to wipe my nose with it ... are you desperate?'

[cjblo]

Well written observations, thanks. They remained very ladylike in the wiping and pinching instead of having a good solid blow. An imaginary man might have done so... (I wish).

[Heathcliff]

Lovely, detailed observations. Thank you.

[launderedlace]

14 hours ago, cjblo said:

Well written observations, thanks. They remained very ladylike in the wiping and pinching instead of having a good solid blow. An imaginary man might have done so... (I wish).

I suspect the woman on the train may never have been a 'good solid blow' person, even in private. It's possible the second handkerchief had been on the receiving end of something like that at the beginning of the day; certainly the way it was being used for wiping was not at all demure and delicate 

[launderedlace]

13 hours ago, Heathcliff said:

Lovely, detailed observations. Thank you.

Thank you for reading and for the positive comment!

[launderedlace]

Rather than start a new topic, I thought I'd add here another observation from today

As I walked into the room, I noticed that a woman in a group of three people had deployed her handkerchief and was busily using it. Using both forefingers, she had pushed the fabric inside both nostrils and was energetically exploring those spaces. Since she was virtually facing me and it felt likely that she would spot me if I continued to observe, it seemed only reasonable to look away and so I didn't see how she completed this use of her handkerchief

However, there was just enough time to take in some of the handkerchief's details; probably one of the prettier ones I've seen being used for a while. Its centre was a mid-blue colour, decorated with a myriad of tiny white flowers; its border was white, adorned with a copious number of small blue flowers. The boundary between the centre and border wasn't straight; it was wavy. In terms of its probable level of use, the handkerchief looked like another one of those that might have been 'clean that morning' - this was now 2pm. Although entirely crumpled, the scrunches were fairly loose and it would be unfair to describe the handkerchief as looking in any way significantly dirty