The Old Coot strings you along. Published in New York on June 18,2025

 The Old Coot strings you along.

By Merlin Lessler

 I’m sitting here at the kitchen table with a ball of string in front of me. I brought it in from the garage to tie up a stack of file folders. It got me thinking; I almost never use string.  Rubber bands, Velcro straps, packing tape, masking tape, scotch tape, duct tape and the like have put string out to pasture: They now dominate the “fastening” landscape. Before then, if you wanted to mail a package, you wrapped it in paper from a grocery bag and tied it with string. Securing all four sides by a knot in the middle of the top.  To get it really tight, you asked someone to put their finger in the middle of the first loop of the knot so you could pull it tight, often pinching their finger in the process. But not anymore; we just slap on some packing tape, provided we can find the end that’s often undetectable.

It’s a little sad when you think about it, how this valuable invention, that archaeologist attribute to the Neanderthals, since it was found at some of their burial sites, but is now residing in the “seldom used, old tool pile.”  Not that long ago, if you went to a bakery for a dozen donuts, you walked out the door, carrying the box by the string it was tied up in. Butcher shops had huge spools of it on top of the meat counter, to tie up your purchase.

Kids in my generation , and several that followed, used string for everything: tying a skate key on a string around their necks (I’ll explain what a skate key is at another time), using it to play cats-in the-cradle, to tie to kites, for stringing yo-yos and many other uses.

For many years it was used as a pull chain to turn on overhead lights. Switches took over that function, but you may still find pull strings in closets and basements. People tied a piece of string around their finger as a reminder. “What’s that string for?” someone might ask.  “Oh that. So I don’t forget to mail that letter in my back pocket.” That sort of thing. I think I should tie a string around my finger. I often “walk the mail” through town and back home again. And, how about people who collected pieces of string, sometimes ending up with “The biggest ball of string in Idaho,” advertised as a tourist attraction on road signs along the highway.  

I think I’ll keep that ball of string on my desk, as a sign of respect for a “tool” that once was so important to civilization.

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