Baby Face ©

While attending Wilkes, I worked during the summers in the early 1970s at a nearby paper mill owned by Proctor & Gamble, which among other things, manufactured Pampers disposable diapers. Pampers is the best known disposable diaper brand. It was developed in the 1940s by Vic Mills after he was dissatisfied with the early disposable options. Proctor & Gamble began producing and marketing Pampers in 1961. Years later while working in New York in the special-interest men's magazine business, I joked to my bosses that I got my first experience in publishing making Pampers. Yeah... they didn't think it was very funny either.

As I worked on the painting, I got flashbacks from the paper mill and the relentless drone of the industrial machinery. I can still smell the cheap perfume that was sprayed on the paper diapers as they whisked through the production lines. (Insert gagging sound here.) I worked a 7-day swing shift, and after each shift I had to scrape off clots of paper dust and particles from my clothing and the soles of my shoes, and shake out my hair. Ahh... good times.