Dirt

Dirt! I’m writing about dirt today. We have had a fence installed in our backyard to keep our Yorke, Rosco, from running off. The guys did a great job with the installation, but they do not remove the excess dirt from the holes they dug. The home owner is responsible for that. I’ve tried to give my dirt to my neighbors, but no one wants my dirt.

Dirt is one of the most important products in the world. And we have always been told that dirt is very inexpensive. You’ve heard the saying, “Cheap as dirt!” God made more dirt than anything else he created. The earth is made out of dirt. We are made from dirt! Dirt floats around in the air. We breath dirt every day. I’m not sure about today’s kids, but all the kids I knew growing up ate dirt, occasionally. Who hasn’t eaten a delicious mud pie? If you grew up in the country, one of your toys was actually dirt. Remember going into the kitchen and sneaking one of your mothers big spoons out so that you could use it to dig dirt? We carefully fashioned roads for our little cars and trucks. We dug holes for no apparent reason, and we enjoyed doing it. Digging in dirt kept us busy.

I enjoyed running bare foot down a long dirt cow path, every once in a while stomping on one of those soft pockets of dirt. It felt so good between my toes. Of course sometimes that soft pocket I stepped in was a fresh pile of cow manure. That actually felt good too. In the summer my friends and I played hard, and we got very dirty. I’d walk to the house late in the afternoon, open the back porch door and take off my britches. Then I’d walk into the bathroom and prepare to wash up. When I looked in the mirror I would see a black circle around my neck. My mother called it a sweat necklace or sweat beads. I think the girls called theirs angel necklaces. Girls got dirty and gritty too. Dirt was and is good for kids.

I don’t know why some scientist hasn’t given dirt the distinction of being a vitamin. We have vitamins A, B, C, and D that are necessary for good health. There is already a vitamin D, so we need another letter for dirt. Maybe Vitamin T would work, T standing for Tierra. Everyone knows that children who have gotten to play in some good old nutritious  dirt are much healthier than those who haven’t. It stands to reason, if God made us out of dirt should we not need more dirt in our bodies to be healthier?