rubber

When I was very young circa 1960, there were quite a few products around us that were made of rubber. There were rubber balls to play with. There were boots to wear over your shoes in the rain. They were called 'rubbers', and sometimes 'galoshes'. Babies wore rubber pants that covered their cloth diapers. This protected furniture and parents from leakage. Not certain, but I assume the rubber bands that held rolled newspapers together during delivery were made of rubber. Bicycle and car tires were made of rubber.

Rubber products are fashioned from the goop that comes from the rubber tree. Plastics - there are so many types of plastics - are made from petroleum and gradually have overtaken the role of rubber.