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Panting Over Christmas

Dec 27, 2006

In 1964 Larry Kunkel's mom gave him a pair of moleskin pants. They froze stiff in the cold Minnesota winter so the next Christmas he wrapped them up nicely and gave them to his brother-in-law. Roy Collette (Larry's brother-in-law) didn't want them either so he gave them back the following Christmas.

That's how two guys ended up trading the same pair of pants for 25 years. The rules changed after Roy twisted the pants really tight and stuffed them into a three-foot long by one-inch wide pipe. Each year they were more creative about their "wrapping" jobs. Only legal and moral wrapping methods were allowed and the expense had to be low. If the trousers were damaged the game ended.

Here are some of the creative ways Roy and Larry came up with to wrap the moleskin pants:

  • One year Roy shipped Larry the pants mounted inside an insulated window that came with a 20-year guarantee.
  • Roy put the pants in a 600 pound safe, had it decorated with red and green stripes and then welded it shut.
  • Next year the pants came in a green, three-foot cube that used to be a 1974 Gremlin automobile. A note attached to the 2,000 pound crumpled car said the pants could be found in the glove compartment.
  • Larry had the fun task one year of getting the pants out of a tire eight feet high and two feet wide. What's the big deal? The tire was filled with concrete. On the tire, Roy had written, "Have a Goodyear."

    The pants finally met their fate in 1989. Roy put the pants in 10,000 pounds of jagged glass. He was going to put the large container on Larry's front yard. Unfortunately, as molten glass was being poured over the insulated container that held the pants, a large chunk of glass fractured, turning the pants into a pile of ashes. Larry still got the pants that Christmas. They were in an urn along with this note, "Sorry, old man. Here lies the pants... An attempt to cast the pants in glass brought the demise of the pants at last."

    Is this one of those funny stories that gets out of hand and becomes an urban legend? Did these two crazy comedians really go to all this much work over a pair of moleskin pants? You tell us. Take our poll and see what others think. Or,

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