Directions said use VINYL gloves!

As I was trying to get the sap off my hands from trimming the Brazilian peppers from the canal I remembered doing a repair project using a plastic resin. I have no idea what I was fixing now, but I was working on the floor of my dad’s garage. I had to crawl around on hands and knees to do the project.

The directions were very clear on how to mix the resin, what the working time would be, to have good ventilation and to wear VINYL gloves. Dad had a box of latex rubber gloves on the work bench. Latex gloves are great because they are tight enough on your hands you have good feel through them. I put on the gloves and started the project.

The resin was nasty to work with. It was almost like honey and it stuck to everything. When I picked up a tool it would not come off my hands. I was leaving hand prints on everything, my hands stuck to everything and everything stuck to me. The project was going south quickly and I was getting frustrated fast.

I did what I could and got off the floor and was ready to remove the gloves.The resin had dissolved the latex rubber gloves. My hands were covered with a resin-rubber glue like stuff that was getting hot and hardening. I tried wiping it off, but lint from the rag stuck to me better then resin coming off on the rag. Fifteen minutes later I had black plastic coated hands. Nothing wanted to take it off.

My brother thought it was great, my sister would not get near me, and mom and dad thought it was funny.  The old guy across the street said if I put it on my face I could be Al Jolson. I was horrified.

Mom made me go to school the next day with my black hands and a note for my teacher. The black wore off in about three days. The project must have turned out OK because the resin did set up. There were still black hand-prints on the garage floor years later when the house was sold. All my family members loved to tell the story about how the hand prints got there. I would almost die each time the story was told. I spent hours trying to get those hand-prints off that floor.