NPR's Storycorps, As Always,
Just Full of Surprising Stories

'As a young woman, Betty Jenkins received a gift from her mother that was meant to attract the attention of young men. But as Jenkins, who is now 94, tells her niece, the attention she got wasn't the kind she was expecting. "I was very skinny, and I didn't have any curves. I guess my mother got kind of worried, because she didn't think I had enough boyfriends," Jenkins said. The gift was an inflatable bra that was designed to enhance its wearer's figure. A straw-like tube was used to inflate pads in the cups. "I was real excited, so I blew and blew to about [size] 32," Jenkins said.'
--From a recent installment of public radio's excellent ongoing oral history project.