| A Word Edgewise
by Mary Joe Clendenin |
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MY GENERATION GREW AMID GERMS
I remember the Grissett's had a white-granite water bucket with a red rim, hanging from the edge of the over-hang of the front porch where the water would stay a little cooler in the hot summer time. In the bucket was the dipper, (today they might be called ladles) for the family and any visitors to drink. Our family visited the Grissets occasional, especially when watermelons were ripe and juicy. Usually, two melons were cut in half, each person given a spoon and we dug in. A fast eating contest arose in the youngsters half of a melon, because the heart was the biggest treat. By the time that was gone we were ready for the seedy part and a seed spiting contest.
That drinking water arrangement was not unique to the Grissets. Our own bucket was not hanging, but sitting on a shelf on the back porch, along side a seldom used washpan for hand washing. A grey granite dipper, some of the enamel chipped and rust showing through, was beginning to leak a little so the drink had to be speedy to keep from getting dripped on.
How did we ever live to adulthood? Where were the microbes and bacteria? No doubt they were there in huge colonies.
On TV the other night, Diane Sawyer was showing a special about how to keep one's family from getting diseases from the bacteria in the kitchen. Examination of super-polished kitchens which looked cleaner than ours in childhood or adulthood ever looked, revealed deadly bacteria capable of causing illness. Chief culprits, favorite hiding places for germs, were found to be the dishrag and sponge used for wiping cabinets.
"O- U- T, spells out goes he, you old dirty dishrag you!" Remember that? Dishrags always had the reputation of being dirty. "She was limp as a dishrag!" Doesn't that bring a picture to your mind?
Contaminated chicken is one of the great sources for illness today. In childhood days, a chicken's life from pecking for food to becoming food was so short it didn't have time to pick up many germs. Mom could catch a fryer, yank its head off and have him in the frying pan in fifteen minutes. No exposure to a chain of hands.
Washing dishes did stir the germs around a little. We had a dishpan on the stove where the water was kept hot while we washed, or we moved the pan to the cook table and used the same dish water until the soap curdled. We did rinse the dishes a little, but not always with boiling water. Then, we dried them, maybe the cup towel was clean, or only slightly used, and set the dishes in the cabinet, germs and all.
Hand washing, especially for kids, was no big deal. Ray remembers telling his mom once when she told him to wash his hands, "But I washed them day before yesterday over at Uncle Bert's."
The old schools had no provisions for hand washing. At Lone Oak, where we had no indoor plumbing, we did have a windmill to provide drinking water from fountains, but not much washing takes place over a drinking spout. Running and playing made for sweat and dirt, but "dirty as pigs" had meaning.
All of this must sound like life in third world countries to the present generation. Now, when I see the living conditions in less fortunate places, I wonder how they live. Looking back, I wonder how we did. We had no reason to fear pollution from insecticides, sewage, and man-made smog. But we were beginning to be our own worst enemies. Just as people visiting another country are susceptible to illness to which natives of that country have become immune, we would probably become ill from conditions of our childhood.
However, people did get sick and die from contamination in our childhood days and beyond. My father's mother and father died from tuberculous, as did his first wife and daughter. The great white plague, as it was called, killed many people. Many illnesses caused by impure water made life expectancy much shorter than it is now. The many, many deaths of infants and mothers in child birth have been greatly reduced simply by cleaner conditions for birthing.
We learned about cleanliness from health books in school, and in 4-H Club. Things began to change. Maybe we learned and changed quickly because we could see the difference, and because ways and means of keeping clean came with plumbing and electricity. We may be cleaner than the next generation will be--if one judges by appearances.
The "good old days" may have been better for the microbes than for the people. Isn't it wonderful that our memories are selective? I'm sorry if my recollections have gone over like a dirty sock (who changed socks and underwear every day when mama's washing machine was a pot in the back yard?) Form my own memories it was freedom from fear that created the happy recollections. We played outside, climbed trees, ate fruit fresh off the trees without washing, swam in the creeks and mud tanks, and did many other things without fear. Children now, especially city children must be taught to fear, to always be careful, not only of germs, but of fellow human beings. The best of both ages would be great.
Wouldn't I be red in the face to learn that others do not recall such unsanitary conditions. Maybe we were the only dirty kids in the country, but I don't think so. I think others wiped their noses on their sleeves, gave each other licks of their stick candy, and looked under tables for slightly used chewing gum.