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DOB kit

Posted by David FG on January 13, 2009 at 16:44

In Reply to: DOB kit posted by ESC on January 12, 2009 at 18:06:

: : I have two separate questions. First, does anyone know the derivation of the term "DOB kit?" I picked up this usage for shaving kit long ago, but don't know it's origin. Also- a more vague question- my mother has been racking her brain for several weeks trying to recall the idiomatic expression that British soldiers in WW II used to describe their kit- their outfit and pack, etc- if I understand correctly. Anyone have thoughts?

: Here is the answer for part 1:

: DOPP KIT - "A Dopp kit once was standard issue upon a boy's entrance into manhood. It's still the best way to keep a man's grooming tools conveniently organized. First designed by Charles Doppelt in 1919 to withstand the rigors of traveling." From The Vermont Country Store "Voice of the Mountains" catalog, Winter 2005. Page 81.

: A google of Mr. Doppelt's name lead to this: "According to newspaper accounts unearthed by Merriam-Webster's Jim Rader, the Dopp Kit was first produced by Charles Doppelt, a leather goods designer who immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the early 1900s. Although it may have been Doppelt's nephew and employee, Jerome Harris, who actually invented the snazzy leather toiletries case, Doppelt was the boss and so the finished product bore a cropped form of his name, giving us the 'Dopp Kit.' Dopp Kits were manufactured by the Charles Doppelt Company until the firm was purchased by Samsonite in the 1970s, and Dopp Kits today are made by Buxton. The popularity of Dopp Kits was evidently boosted considerably by World War II, in the course of which the U.S. Army issued them to recruits by the millions." From the Word Detective online, October 30, 2001, column. www.word-detective.com/ 103001.html Accessed March 7, 2005.


Full kit was known, I believe, as 'Christmas Tree Order' - an allusion, I suppose, to being completely laden with things hanging from one.

Not sure if that is any use.

DFG

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