Dirty Fingernails


About 2.5 million years ago the claws of our primate ancestors evolved into fingernails as we began using tools. Probably have been mostly dirty ever since.

Was in the hospital with mom a few months ago when she suffered serious injuries followed by a stroke.  Noticed her fingernails were a bit dirty even after a few days in ICU.  Suspect, even at age 91, she may have been doing something on the farm or her yard the day of the accident that involved getting her hands and fingernails dirty.

Think I might have been in my teens before I realized dirt wasn’t the natural color of fingernails. Dirt was one of my favorite toys and certainly the most ubiquitous as a child. Dirt, mud, toy tractors and trucks took up most of my days until I was old enough to help out on the farm.  Working with old farm equipment just added a new stubborn ingredient - grease (a whole new level of dirty). It was years before my nails would be clean for more than a day or two.

What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds. Will Rogers

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mom

Image
Cynthia McIntire Born to Ben and Montie Holmes Wann, the second of five children on April 9, 1927. Cynthia was born, raised, and lived in Paluxy where she spent the next more than ninety years. Only leaving Paluxy for a few months in Florida early in her marriage and then for her last couple of years in a nursing home as the result of a fall followed by a stroke. She is survived by Clinton (Junior to many), husband of 73 years, children Terry, Sheila, Sharon, sister Glenda, sister in law Jean, 7 grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren. While the last 3 years of her life were difficult because of declining health, very few of us will experience 91 good, happy years with family, friends, and home. And, this is what she had. She and Clinton were rarely apart. They worked together side by side on the farm. They traveled and socialized extensively after retirement mostly with the local Good Sams group of which they were members for over 25 years. She was a great mother, but cou...
Read more

Smells of Summer

Image
The smell of freshly ground ginger root while making BBQ sauce and the smell of rain on a hot dry summer day are my favorites.  A brief rain while BBQing yesterday brought these two into close proximity. Also for the record, you can't open a beer with an electric can opener, even when when sober.  If you haven't had drunken chicken, it is worth a try.  The addition of crab boil to the beer makes it even better.
Read more

20 years BC

Image
"A dull pencil is greater than the sharpest memory" arthur unknown BC (before calculators) I remember when I was growing up, many of the farmers and ranchers carried these pocket pencils.  They were the calculator of the day.  And any flat surface would suffice for figuring the cost of a load of hay, how much you owed the hired hands, etc.  Seemed like there were numbers every where; on the faded paint of truck fenders, door frames and many pages of pocket sized note pads.
Read more