Peggy De-Bunker

Television was in its infancy when I was a kid (50s).  Homes that had televisions had ONE--black and white--and the technology was rudimentary.  Families frequently watched evening and weekend programming together, as did we.  Variety shows were all the rage back then.  The Ed Sullivan Show comes to mind.  Ol' Ed had singers and other musicians, acrobats, jugglers, magic acts--even Elvis Presley.  (Oh my!)  We all sat in front of the tube, enraptured with the entertainment of it all.  Except me.  I spent a lot of time saying things like, "I can do THAT."  "That's easy."  "What's the big deal about that?  I can do it, too."

Commercials in those days were all about jingles and happy little sayings...and comparisons. Compare OUR product with the "other" leading brand...but for some reason, the "other leading brand" was never named--as if some law forbade it.  That drove my little brain nuts!  I sat in front of the television picking apart the commercials for how they could have been faked.  It got so bad that my mother started calling me Peggy De-Bunker.

Interestingly, I'm still doing it!  People post things on Facebook as if it were truth--things that they've seen or heard but not checked out for validity.  Nine times out of ten, checking them out determines that they are either not true or that the whole truth hasn't been told...and that bugs me.  Every chance I get, I end up trying to set the record straight.  It hasn't endeared me to everyone, but I'm all for "truth, justice, and the American way".  (Just call me Superwoman.)

As an example, there is a commercial on local TV for a mattress company that alleges that, if your mattress is over eight years old, it could have gained ten pounds due to sweat, skin cells, and dust mites.
What a load of nonsense! First of all, sweat--which is mostly water and a little salt--evaporates.  When the water is gone, all that is left is the salt.  If you could collect 100% of your sweat in a jar for your entire lifetime and evaporate all of the water, the remaining salt would be in ounces, not pounds.  Skin cells?  Hey...I'm an expert skin cell shedder, and I can tell you that each flake of dry skin weighs next to nothing.  How many flakes to make a single pound?  You probably can't produce that much skin in your lifetime!  As for dust mites, those little buggers are microscopic.  That means they are too small to be seen with the naked eye.  I'm not sure how many microscopic organisms it takes to raise the weight of something, but I'm pretty sure they aren't a factor in the health of your mattress!

But here's the real kicker:  I don't know about you, but I have covers on my mattresses and sheets on top of those.  I wash those in hot water and bleach regularly.  Bye-bye sweat salt, skin cells, and dust mites.  Of course, I haven't weighed my mattresses lately.  If they've gained weight then they need to go on a diet!

Peggy De-Bunker still exists!