What is a Furman?

[Bertram]

Only team that can get away with using "FU ALL THE TIME" as a tagline on the back of their helmets.

 

[driftwood]

Only team that can get away with using "FU ALL THE TIME" as a tagline on the back of their helmets.

I just gained some respect for them.

 

[Ursa Major]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Merkins….always Merkins.

Pretty much everything in modern history can be traced back to merkin salesmen, or, a “Fur Man”, as they called them in under-educated regions. In those days, nobody would lie down, in the biblical sense, with someone without one. They kept our society going. Merkins were the G-strings of yesteryear.

This particular purveyor from J.O. Paine & Sons is at the ready with the comb for the fittings. One can tell he was good; really good.

You are so right, CDA. Merkins are the fundamental backbone of American greatness. In the early nineteenth century merkins were at the forefront of our country’s westward expansion as the original J.O. Paine & Sons holding company sent droves of trappers westward to meet the ever popular demand of their first generation Beaver Pelt model.

First Lady Dolly Madison, one of the first openly pudendum Americans, not only made a fashion splash with her merkins, she also used her extensive collection to transport George Washington’s portrait from a burning White House in 1812. She reportedly told her footman, “Load the portrait in the wagon and ensconce it in my merkins. I want to muff the sound.”

During WWII merkins went to war with our fly boys in Europe and the Pacific as J.O. Paine & Sons supplied the material for the crosshairs on the Norden bombsights aboard American B-17 and B-29 bomber aircraft.

Merkins styles have changed over the years to reflect the fashion and lifestyle trends of American society.

Many merkins model names have become a part of the American lexicon and a reflection of their times. From the original Beaver Pelt model of the 1800’s transitioning to the Cleveland Harvest and then to the venerable Pizza Slice that reflected the vast immigration of the early 20th century era. The Victory Garden of the 1940’s, the Beav, the Bob and the Wall to Wall Carpeting models of the postwar years. Who could forget the Sasquatch of the 1960’s or the ZZ Top and the Nipsey Russell of the 1970’s?

Merkins were also there for a changing America in the 1980’s and 1990’s meeting consumer demands for exciting new styles including the V-8, the Slant Six, the Wedge (aka: Dorothy Hamill), the mini-V, the Freshly Mowed Lawn, the Harry Potter, the Hello Kitty and of course the ever popular Landing Strip and its variants, the Bacon Strip and the Racing Stripe.

Hard times befell the industry at the dawn of the 21st century. Offshore production, quality control issues and the rise in popularity of The Kojak doomed the industry. It was a sad day when J.O. Paine & Sons finally shuddered their Vermont factory in 2004.

Here is to the Fur man of old!

 

[CDAGRIZ]

Straight gold by Ursa. Also, 100% historically accurate, for those wondering.

 

[grizphan]

Just found this gem on my phone. If anyone knows this fantastic gentleman buy him a beer.