Thursday, March 06, 2008
Down and Dirty!
One of the first things that parents teach a young toddler is don’t eat yellow snow. “ It is not good for you.” When I was growing up before green house gases abounded, we would eagerly await the first snowfall of the winter in order to make snow ice cream. Of course we were always very careful where we got our snow. The top of a car was always a good place unless you saw cat or bird tracks there. It had to be pure white. No black or gray snow was tolerated. However, dingy snow did have its uses. It made great snowballs and sent a message to the recipient. When I became an adult after decades of snow deprivation, I decided to make some snow ice cream for my kids. I took a bite and it was awful. I have not made any since. Good thing!
The February 29 edition of Science has reported that snow is full of bacteria. When the temperature drops below the freezing mark snow can form if it has something around which to coagulate. There are millions and millions of bacteria just floating around with nothing better to do so they offer their services to Old Man Winter and presto we have snow. Experts tell us that we should not be overly alarmed. Although tomatoes and beans may be susceptible, there are no reports of children becoming ill from eating snow—at least not from eating white snow. According to Dr. Penelope Dennehy, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee on infectious diseases, children won’t get anything from snow that they wouldn’t get from dirt.
Now I don’t know about you but I have never cared for dirt myself. However, there is a long history of people eating clay in the South, especially Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. I first became aware of this phenomenon when I was still a university student. I encountered the contemptuous term “clay eater to describe one of the lowest social classes in the South. I simply could not imagine anyone eating clay more than once and then only on a dare. But I found out that I was wrong.
Geophagy is a medical term that refers to people eating dirt, clay and etc. The practice dates at least back to the time of the Romans. During the reign of Emperor Tiberius, Cornelius Celsus wrote “people whose colour is bad when they are not jaundiced are either sufferers from pains in the head or earth eaters.” Avicenna, the Persian physician, recommended that young boys be imprisoned if they resorted to eating dirt. Apparently he had tried it once and did not like it at all. In Siberia tribes have been known to munch on small clay balls as they march. In pre-Columbian America Indians mixed clay with acorns to make their bread more palatable.
African slaves brought the ritual of dirt eating to the South. Some slave owners took harsh measures to end the abominable practice of eating clay by fashioning mouth locks to prevent Negroes from ingesting non-approved dietary items. They did not want anyone to get sick and die. Still aficionados touted its benefits: a softer, whiter skin, a diarrhea remedy, help in conception, a morning sickness preventive, and a remedy for tired blood, i.e. anemia (Geritol had not yet been invented). It was hard to pass up such a supposed elixir. Clay eating soon spread to lower-class whites. Like Mikey, they would try anything.
Despite efforts to eradicate clay eating, the practice continues to this day. In Georgia some stores sell a product: "Down Home Georgia White Dirt. Novelty. Not Suggested for Human Consumption." Reverse psychology no doubt. In Mississippi seniors have been known to argue over which clay tastes best: Mississippi or Alabama. If I had to choose I would pick that wallpaper cleaner that almost no one would buy until it was repackaged as Play-Doh. And according to Hasbro it does contain wheat and food coloring but no peanut oil. After all one should not make a product too appetizing. Mikey, children, and southern whites will eat anything, especially if it is fried, even fried Twinkies. Although it was not fried, some people have at least tried cooking their clay.
