Here’s an alarming thought: A news report says Kimberly-Clark Corp. will raise the price of toilet paper four to seven percent, effective Feb. 3, 2008.</p><p>
Kimberly-Clark makes Scott bathroom tissue, as well Kleenex, Huggies diapers and numerous other paper products. I would suppose other companies will follow suit.</p><p>
The story suggests we stock up on toilet paper to avoid this increase and implies we should stay away from France and Great Britain. Toilet tissue costs two to three times more in those countries than it does in the U.S. Folks who want to learn more about this important issue can go to the website www.ToiletPaperWorld.com </p><p>
I know some readers don’t care to know more, but I find the whole thing kind of scary. That’s because I can remember when folks didn’t just go out and buy 20 rolls of toilet paper, like we do now. We had to ration it.</p><p>
Readers of my generation will recall the first thing we learned in potty training was how to tear off two squares of toilet paper at one time. Poor folks may have torn only one, and rich people probably used three or four, but my family was middle-class: We always tore two at a time.</p><p>
Mother was strict about the two-squares rule. I would go into town to play with friends, and the town kids would just reel off a big wad of toilet paper. I would think, Now there’s a kid who’s never going to amount to anything.
The generation before mine didn’t even have toilet paper, much of the time. All they had were corncobs and Sears catalogs.</p><p>
Then came the 1950s, when commodity prices were sky high, and a kid could go to work for a neighbor with the promise of $1 an hour and “three squares a day.” The town kids thought “squares” meant meals, but the farm boys knew better.</p><p>
That’s the main reason I went to college – the promise of a better life and the chance to use three squares of toilet paper. I’m not sure when the economy reached that level, but it makes a person stop and think.</p><p>
That’s why I get so irritated when I visit public restrooms where they stock those huge rolls of toilet paper. These things are five miles long and two inches wide. Apparently, some slick salesman convinced the janitors they were getting a bargain with that five-mile roll of paper.</p><p>
I first noticed the extra-narrow toilet paper on a trip to Canada years ago. Those were the days when toilet paper was expensive in Canada and their dollar was only worth about two-thirds of ours.</p><p>
The Canadian dollar got so cheap and their toilet paper was so narrow that the two were nearly interchangeable. Fortunately, the Canadian dollar has recovered, and I suppose their toilet paper has, too.</p><p>
Either way, I’m headed for the store to stock up. There’s no point in absorbing a seven percent increase if we don’t have to.</p><p>

Readers with questions or comments for Roger Pond may write to him in care of this publication.