Who Put the D in the DDT?

As a child of the south, I grew up in a much simpler time. I am not saying better, only simpler, and not necessarily safer. As a point in fact, cars had no seatbelts and little or no crash protection. There was not much, if any regulation on the food we ate, or the dangerous chemicals we could readily buy over the counter.

I only recall seeing, or hearing of one person that had cancer. An old man in town had a blackened and deteriorating cheek, probably the result of chewing tobacco. I don’t even remember hearing about anyone having a heart attack.

The little rural town of Vivian had almost no crime, and my parents let Brother Jack and me roam the neighborhood and nearby woods unsupervised. Once we ate dinner and did our homework, what little we had, we headed outside to ride our bikes, play Army with our friends, or just hang out – always until way after dark.

The weather in northwest Louisiana can grow hot in the summer but is rarely very cold. Plant life abounds, as does every manner of insect, including mosquitoes. During the fifties, Vivian acquired a fogging machine – a noisy contraption that passed slowly through our neighborhood every evening. The machine belched out a noxious chemical cloud that billowed past the sidewalks, through the yards, and into the open doors and windows of every house in town.

We kids used to chase the fogging machine, running through the gray cloud, playing war and pretending we were in a gas attack. Little did we know!

A half-century has passed and DDT banned in much of the world. The world, for the most part, currently regulates dangerous chemicals, and cars now have seatbelts. Something else has also changed. Cancer, heart disease, diabetes and all manner of other dread diseases are not only commonplace, they are rampant.

Life was simpler in the fifties but things have changed. Maybe we have more cancer and heart disease now because of the thoughtless things we did, but hey, at least we managed to eradicate malaria!

Eric'sWeb