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Perma Press

In the 70s--need I say more--Prime Minister PET (Pierre Elliott Trudeau) did a number of things to cajole and harangue Canadians.  There were wage and price controls, there was Fuddle Duddle, there was the Fuddle Buck, that wasn't worth a buck (there being 25 per cent discount, more or less, against the American dollar--in the long history stretchy dollar, 15 cents either way makes no difference).
Protesting the weak Canadian dollar; a group of businessmen gave away bumper stickers and wore Tru-dough fuddle buck T-shirts outside the Toronto Stock Exchange yesterday. [Incomplete]
The Fuddle Buck was, however, worth 100 cents True Dough, and it certainly stretched better than fabulous Fortrel, or any of a number of 70s miracle fibers and fabrics.
How could you forget the Dacron bathroom ensemble, to match your famous four appliance colours: avocado green, burnt almond, coppertone brown, and poppy red.
Image result for fortrel tag
Washer/dryer, fridge, stove--missing anything?  Oh, yes, the dish squasher!
Image result for avocado green appliances
And, in the small appliance category, the bun warmer, the crock pot, and the electric knife.
Image result for avocado bun warmerImage result for avocado crock potImage result for avocado electric knife
Then he brought in the metric system, which made "A quarter" (of a pound) of bologne in grams a morning plenary at the annual meat slicers' convention in Medicine Hat, Alberta.
Image result for meat slicers' convention
It also made Trudeau wrenches very unpopular to weekend mechanics, in their aquamarine corrugated fiberglass enclosed carports
Image result for fiberglass carport mechanic
who have never given up their imperial torque wrenches even to this very day.
Image result for 1970s wrench set
Torque is as torque does, surely.

And what were Canadians to make of the meter stick, which was a paint store premium?
Image result for meter stickImage result for paint store yard sticks
It was as awkward and inexplicable as a slide rule,
Image result for slide rule
and as mechanically challenging as an architect's scale.
Image result for architect's scale
What's more, the meter stick made a perfect blind man's cane, when paired up with a pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarer's in Mr Christensen's Henry Wise Wood physics class.
Image result for ray ban wayfarers
A slap of the meter stick on the shins was definitely harder than a swat of a yardstick on the socks!

If nothing else, PET left us with Perma Press.Image result for perma press 1970s
Image result for perma press 1970s
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