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I have the same memories; part of the reason for my reluctance to use them. I used to have a lot of colds as a child (at least 10 each year), so they also remind me of being ill!

Tay wrote:II used to have a lot of colds as a child (at least 10 each year)

Surely that would just have been one big cold.

It felt like it! Then I'd get a chest infection after each cold, both would clear up and it would start again a couple of weeks later. Strangely, I haven't had a chest infection or anywhere near as many colds (1 or two a year) since I started smoking. Touch wood, I haven't had a cold since being in France.

Tay wrote:Touch wood, I haven't had a cold since being in France.

It's the outdoor lifestyle! The only cold I've had in about the last 4 years was last November when I was in England! It lasted for weeks - I'd forgotten just how completely miserable you feel with a full blown cold and then a rotten tickly cough that goes on for weeks after that. Oh and I went through the village shop's complete supply of balsam tissues in 10 days - all four packets!! Now how many hankies is that?

What are disposable hankies made of? Is it the same as paper - are they virgin woodpulp?

After a bit of digging -

n 2005, Greenpeace launched the Kleercut campaign against Kimberly-Clark to protest its methods of tissue production and its alleged use of ancient forests to produce disposable products. (see Kimberly-Clark Corporation).

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleenex

Make them on green cloth !! Why do they have to be white? Green is a very appropriate colour methinks

Another good reason to use hankies rather than tissues is the 'tissue in the wash problem' where one small tissue breaks up into loads of little fibres and covers your best clothes.

the biggest argument for hankies I can see is that you can safety pin them to the sleeve of a snotty nosed child and they then always have one to wipe said snot, at school with that greaseproof paper loo roll they use kids end up sniffling all day otherwise.

But really they are softer on the nose than tissues and (this is gross I know) if they get wet they do at least dry out in an hour or so for emergency use.

Also - just to change the subject a little - what are those paper-like disposable kitchen cloths made of? J-Cloth type things. Ditto tea bags? They seem to be made of paper when you tear them, but they don't disintegrate in water.

Hello! Your local 'hankie-lady' dropping by (after a long absence) to say 'we have hankies made from 'green' cloth (ie organic cotton)'. We even have some in green gingham check: http://www.organic-ally.co.uk/26026%20L ... nkies.html

Did you know that cotton fibres comes in different colours but conventional breeders have bred them into white cotton to make it easier to dye?

In the recent hayfever season i've had several grateful customers who found the large soft organic cotton hankies a real help as they absorb so much better. And (sorry about the yucky bit) they seem to dry quickly enough for a second round. So you can't really compare how many paper tissues you use and how many hankies you THINK/imagine you might have to use to get through a cold.

And how do you know it is not the tissue that's making your cold worse?