LEARNING CENTER

Barbara: This month I learned something about the bra. The bra has forever been the bane of my existence. As a young girl who developed kind of late, I was always wary of going to a party where the adolescent boys in those days thought it was hysterical to snap the bra back of all the girls and if you were caught without one you would never live it down. The ‘70s were great when it was finally acceptable and even cool to go without a bra (although now when I look at the pictures of me walking around Europe without one I blush as red as the tight little tank top I was wearing). Once I finally (thank goodness) needed a bra – and to this day – I was constantly conscious of the restricting straps, bands, wires, etc. on them. Who came up with this tortuous device?! Now I know. “Lisa Lindahl, Hinda Miller and Polly Smith were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for creating the modern sports bra. Their prototype was made by sewing two jockstraps together.” Two jockstraps? Of course – they must be the sisters of those little boys who were still torturing me! I guess you can’t win for losing.