Kids and Germs

In the street where I used to live as a kid the road was cobbled and full of dirt and I would go home after playing in it really mucky. My mother would grab me by the ear and give me a "spit wash" to get me "clean" again after muttering "Got enough much on your neck to grow potatoes! When they put tarmac down the sun would melt the tar and, of course, I'd get covered in it so the scrubbing brush would come out.

When I was about 6 or 7 after a day in the park playing cricket I managed to get German Measles [ a lot to answer for those Germans!], Jaundice and Sun stroke in one go!! Scarlet Fever. Polio, Rickets and Chicken Pox were around while now only latter is common. We weren't encouraged to get mucky but it wasn't discouraged either, but bringing the muck into the house would bring wrath upon your head as the houses, although poor, were kept clean, polished and neat.

Weils Disease is particularly nasty and Eddy definitely has my sympathy after contracting it, and as he says, it has long lasting effects. I'm a Fresh water Angler and Weils Disease is always a threat. It's so easy to transfer pond/river water from the line to your hand to your mouth that Weils Disease is not the only disease you could contract. But then I could get run over by a No.53 bus just crossing the road so I don't let it stop me from enjoying what I do.

Let's face it when we garden how many diseases are we and our kids exposed to?? - too many to contemplate!! As part of this world humanity is supposed to get mucky and be exposed to the various diseases so that our immune system can be tested and broadened.

The present fashion of disinfecting soaps and their irritating containers is commercially driven [anything to make a buck!], but it has pressed the fear button of the public and organisations which deal with the public from cafes to Town Halls.

I believe we all have a bit of muck on us for some part of the day and that's how it should be. Besides if I wanted to catch a disease perhaps I should stay at a hospital for a day or two - that's guaranteed to test my immune system.

Now I'm going out in the garden to get mucky.