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.