Well, I want to send a big thanks to Victor Friskey! He suggested to me that Andy might have been saying (at the beginning of "The Rumor," season four) "oilcloth coat" instead of "all-cloth coat." I had heard of oilcloth, but only as used for tablecloths in years gone by. I popped my DVD in and took another listen to Andy's comment to the unseen lady on the street. Sure enough, it does sound like he says, "Mighty pretty black oilcloth coat!" I did a little research on the Internet as to what oilcloth actually is. Apparently, it was invented over a hundred years ago by an Australian sailor who took cloth from a torn ship's sail and treated it with linseed oil, paraffin, and beeswax to make it impervious to the weather, then sewed it into workcoats for sailors. Thus, the oilcloth coat became the standard type of raincoat until plastics became the norm.
Mystery solved! Thelma Lou (Janet) _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
