Sometime between 1991 and 1994, while working as a parts driver for Norwest Automotive, I picked up a used car battery from one of our customers. I didn't think anything of it in the moment; I'd picked up used parts for disposal several times already, and this was just one more instance.
But a couple of hours later, I noticed that my bluejeans were developing white patches in odd places, starting just below my pelvis. Over the course of the day, those white patches spread and the miscoloured denim thinned, By the time I returned home, my pants had developed huge rends, tears and gaps, disintegrating almost entirely into scraps not long after I removed my shoes.
I figured that the battery must have cracked and leaked some mildly corrosive form of acid down my pants. Certainly my legs were quite itchy by the end of the day, and they'd taken on a slightly pinkish hue. A thorough scrubbing in the shower relieved those symptoms.
I had occasion to tell Mom and Sean this story tonight; credit goes to Sean for coming up with the perfect title for this post.
Saturday, November 30, 2024
Acid-Washed Jeans
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2 comments:
Wow, you were lucky! Battery acid is very corrosive, it's watered-down sulfuric acid.
Were you there when Doug H. asked the waitress for the time? She looked at her wristwatch, forgetting that she was holding a pot of hot coffee. She ended up pouring about half of it into Doug's groin. Poor guy had scalds and blisters, and he had a ballroom dance competition that night, where he, shall we say, burned out.
Oh, I remember that day very well; I had an excellent view of the catastrophe. Poor, poor Doug.
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