Little boys, including this one in his younger years, enjoyed messing around in dirt. We made piles of dirt just for the fun of it.

We liked to feel the mush of dirt between our toes when we walked around bare-footed. I once tried to walk into the house with real gooey dirt between my toes and almost up to my knees.

But Mother stopped me on the front porch and directed me to the outside water faucet and stood by while I rid my feet and legs of mud – real red mud mind you – the best kind. I am an expert on what real mud consists of!

Really there is nothing more soothing than having nice fresh mud – red mud – between your toes. It is such a wonderful feeling.

A recent article in “The Economist” magazine reminded me of those days. The article starts off as follows: “Grub, filth, grime, muck, slag, grit, grunge, smut, dross, dust, sludge, squalor. There is nothing better than mud, not the old grey mud full of sand and stuff – but real red mud found in much of North Carolina, but not on the North Carolina coast or the Sandhills.”

Reading this article reminded me of the good times of long ago. I have never been to a beauty parlor for a facial or treatment for my skin. I suppose exposure to the elements is what made my skin so full of vitality and radiant good looks.

I was an out-of-doors type of guy. I liked to kick cans, mow grass (especially if I got paid) and do odd jobs around our house and the neighborhood. My daddy told me when I was still in the lower grades of school that if I wanted to go to college I would have to pay my way because he couldn’t afford to send me to college. So I worked hard to earn my way.

The effort to remove dirt, and imbue bodies and bathrooms with bathrooms with a scent of tangerine, mint or almond instead, is a big business.

Each year the world spends $24 billion on soap bars or liquid gels and wash, according to Euromonitor International, a research firm. Another $106 billion goes on cleaning laundry, dishes, lavatories and other surfaces, including baths and showers and bodies themselves and deplore sloppy habits.

Fully 76% of kitchen sink cloths are infected with germs. One in three American men does not wash his hands after using a public lavatory. Worries about the spread of swine flu are currently doing wonders for the market in pocket-sized antimicrobial handwash.

There is nothing fixed, however, about Western fascination with dirt – or terror of it. As recently as 1965 only half of British women used an underarm deodorant.

Back in 1940 just over half of American households had a proper bathroom. In 1951 nearly two-fifths of English households lacked a bath – and not for reasons of post-war poverty!

Regular all-over bathing, elaborated in ancient Greece and Rome and celebrated in luxurious contemporary ensuite bathrooms, was distrusted for about 400 years a second millennium.

Water was thought to carry disease into the skin; pores nicely clogged with dirt were a means to block it out. In the 17th century the European aristocracy who washed little, wore linen shirts in order to draw out dirt from the skin instead, and heavy perfumes and oils to mask bad smells.

The meaning of dirt is as slippery as a bar of wet soap. Attitudes to hygiene in the West have evolved not only with modern medicine and microbiology.

The history of Cleanliness is also the stir of development of household appliances and furnishing, of mass consumer marketing and global brands.

To be continued next week.



Barron Mills is a former editor and publisher of The Randolph Guide. He lives in Asheboro.