Mentioned in John Steinbeck's Novel, Of Mice and Men The Passage states "You seen that glove on his left hand?"
"
Yeah. Seen it."
"Well, that glove's fulla vaseline."
"Vaseline? What the hell for?"
"Well, I tell ya what - Curley says he's keepin' that hand
soft for his wife."
"That's a dirty thing to tell around," he said."
Which has disturbed me since 9th grade and I couldn't get it out of my
head!
Meaning keeping your hand
soft for some kind of sexual pleasure one can only assume.