Anyone else have trouble with these guys? I'm talking, of course, about the habit the elastic around the cap has of getting too loose after only three months' use. Next thing you know your hair is slipping out the bottom or water is creeping into the top and your head is getting wet again.

Once I grumbling decided I was being too parsimonious and next time was going to buy an expensive shower cap instead of the WalMart/Kmart/Dollar Store special. I got a beauty and it cost me nearly $7, too. It had an inner liner and was extra large so you could put it over curlers or a bouffant hairdo (do people still have bouffant hairdos?). And the elastic was certainly tight. The first time I had to keep readjusting during the shower because it was pressing against my temples unpleasantly hard.

This wasn't the sign of a superior elastic band, alas. In two months it was baggier than the el cheapo variety. I looked like the baby Mr. Peanut in the ad with his top hat falling over his "ears." So I went back to the WalMart specials except for once: at some point many years ago I'd forgotten one of my cheapy shower caps when we went up to the lodge at Unicoi State Park and used and brought home the "flimsy" clear shower caps hotels give you as a courtesy. Since the elastic on it was then tighter than the latest bagged-out cheapo shower cap, I kept using it at home. The darn thing lasted nearly a year before the elastic finally gave up the ghost.

To sorta digress, several years ago Saran Wrap came out with these things called "Quick Covers." They were actually a new wrinkle—disposable—on the old elastic-band cotton and vinyl bowl covers they had back in the 1950s (or maybe it was earlier). If you had a can of vegetables or soup you didn't finish, or a bowl of something you wanted to keep and the container didn't come with a cover, you popped these bowl covers on. The old-timey ones often came in pastel colors or were decorated with fruit designs. For a long time after they disappeared from Woolworth's you could get them in the different catalogs, like Harriet Carter and Lillian Vernon.

Saran released these Quick Covers in a variety pack of three sizes (also in a pack of fourteen medium-size). The small ones were our favorites, as they either fitted well over the half can of Campbell's chicken broth I had left over until next week, or a can of mushrooms James had split. We bought a couple of boxes and washed them out after each use so they lasted longer, but eventually they were gone, except for the large size which we almost never used. Several were still tucked up in a cupboard when we moved.

Anyway, the first time I saw one of these things on the soup can I laughed and pointed out to James that "it looks like it's wearing a little shower cap." He laughed and it became one of our little jokes to ask for "little shower caps" as we were putting the leftovers up. (I knew my mom was losing it last spring when I found some of the Quick Covers in her cupboard and joked about her "shower caps." She was already so far gone she didn't understand the joke. ::sigh::)

The last time we went to look for more "Quick Covers," they had completely vanished from the supermarket shelves. We have checked Kroger, Publix, and WalMart and none of them carry them any longer. Damn.

Which is why I was happy this afternoon when I ducked into Dollar Tree after lunch and found boxes upon boxes of generic "Quick Covers."* I bought three!

I mention real shower caps at the beginning of this entry because along about last summer yet another one of those cheap WalMart shower caps went south on me. I noticed that the large Saran Wrap Quick Cover was the exact size of a shower cap and said I'd use one of those until I got back to WalMart.

I just tossed it two weeks ago when we moved into the new house. The elastic on it had just started to be loose for about a month.

I surrender. For a shower cap I'm using one of the three we found tucked up in the cupboard. At this rate, I won't need a new shower cap until about 2008.

Amy Dacyshyn would be proud. :-D

* In searching to see if Saran still sold Quick Covers (they do, they're on their website), I found the same generic bowl covers I bought at Dollar Tree for a buck each being sold by someone on eBay for two for $10! LOL. Wonder if they're going to sell!

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 1:44:00 PM

Comments:

Go to EBAY if you want Saran Quick covers. There is a seller there that sells small, medium and large boxes that are identical to saran covers. EBAY NAME THATGIRLJD

# posted by  Anonymous : 9:51:00 PM

 

My wife tasked me with sourcing the defunct Quick Covers.

I found the following source:


Variety Pack - 40 ea. $3.50 + s/h
http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=1120251

She'll love receiving these for Christmas!

Can't beat being married to a resourceful and romantical husband, eh ladies?

# posted by  Anonymous : 10:23:00 PM

 

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