Saturday, January 22, 2011

6 comments:

Julie said...

During the '60's my dad, a Midwestern farmer, used spray a herbicide around our pumphouse that he had found really effective in the fields. It would later get a notorious reputation during the Vietnam war as "Agent Orange".

It's kind of a wonder some of us don't glow in the dark, isn't it?

3puddytats said...

In the early 70's we had some neighbors move next to us that ""ahem"" weren't the CLEANEST of folks. Before you know it we were invaded by roaches and ants..

My dad, being the kind of guy who never threw anything away, mixed up some "special" spray, and told my brother and I and my mom to stay inside for awhile.....the bugs were GONE..and stayed GONE.

It was probably DDT...

On the other hand..the spray that the county here uses for mosquito abatement is absolutely worthless..and we pay alot of money for it too..

Sara

belinda said...

My father use to spray our home regularly as a child, then the yard - he didn't want any bugs there either, then the garden - if there had been one that year. He liked spraying to the extent that he encouraged my mom to get an exterminators lisence.

I'm being honest when I say, "I feel fortunate to be alive considering the lifetime of chemicals I've been exposed to."

Julie said...

Because we had over 200 hogs on our farm, we also had lots and lots of flies.
Every Sunday morning during the summer this was our ritual: Before going to mass, we would carry all the houseplants and my goldfish in his bowl(!) out to the front porch. Then Mom would put the pot roast in the oven, and we'd all pile into our car and waited while Dad sprayed Raid all through our house.
Upon returning from mass an hour or so later, we would be greeted by the lovely smell of pot roast and roasted carrots, and all of us kids would be dispatched to sweep up the dead flies which lay legs-up on every flat surface.

Julie said...

Belinda,
Have you ever gone to the site lileks.com? I'm sorry I'm not computer-savy enough to give you a link to it.
If you go there, be sure to take a look at the Institute of Good Cheer. It contains the Gallery of Regrettable Food, and many wonderful things you might enjoy.

belinda said...

Thank you for sharing that link. I will check it out.