In the old days, when we wasn’t sanitary, why, we were strong enough to withstand germs. But nowadays, we have to be careful of the microbes, for if they get a hold on us, we are goners.
The old-fashioned gourd that the whole family drank out of, from birth to death, would today kill more of the modern population than a war would — July 15, 1931 Will Rogers
I am kind of aligned with Will here and especially since it has been over eighty years that he wrote these words of wisdom. I think especially since Will’s time we have grown into a nation of wimps.
We get vaccinated for just about everything that can make us sick. In the old days and that includes when I was a kid, chicken pox and such ran through entire grade school classes at a time. Some mothers even exposed their kids so they wouldn’t get it later. We are just wimps nowadays.
Now that we are “sanitary” we seem to be vulnerable to just about everything. In the old days if I dropped my hotdog on the ground I would simply pick it up, wipe off the dirt, and continue eating it. The germs and stuff I ate in the process made me stronger. Can you imagine any parent allowing their kid to eat dirt today? We are just wimps nowadays.
All these computers and desk jobs are making us wimps. In the old days a guy working an assembly line often had to lift heavy stuff like car doors all day long. In the process he got muscles and was pretty fit. Now all that heavy lifting is done by robots. It doesn’t take muscles to do a job like in the old days. We are just wimps nowadays.
The kids learn to be wimps from an early age. In the old days before video games kids were outside running around playing cowboys and indians. Now they are for the most part camped out in front of a TV with only thumbs being exercised. Kids are just wimps nowadays.
But I’m just a simple guy who is also a wimp so what do I know…
RJ's Corner 
I read recently that children living on farms have been documented as having far fewer allergies. I’m sure there is something to this “too sanitary” thing–within reason of course. The thing that still gets me is how so many people today will circle the parking lot looking for that close parking spot and then go pay money to work out at a fancy gym.
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Thanks for the visit Don, yeah I know where you are coming from. I think maybe we sanitized too much for our own good. The parking lot thing I can certainly relate to also.
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I’m a little late with this reply but I read an article in the Mpls Trib this morning that kind of relates.
If you’re worried about being too sanitary you might want to contemplate your naval. There is a study going on at NC State University that is called the “Bellybutton Biodiversity Project”. Apparently our bellybuttons are flush with bacteria…both good and bad. One researcher said “Your navel may well be one of the last biological frontiers.” It is the perfect host for bacteria…dark, moist, and warm. The article points out that the researchers are educating us on the need for good bacteria and less use of antibiotics.
Maybe with climate change and water shortages we’ll be less “clean” in the future and can toughen those kids up a bit!
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Hi Jane, yeah I heard about the belly button thing before. I should have mentioned that in the post. Nice catch. Yeah, global warming might just toughen us all up before it is over.
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I agree with most of your blog here, but in regards to the germs aspect, I wonder if we are doing the “how the good old days were” piece. Well, isn’t it possible that those wonderful years were full of illness and sickness that we, as kids, didn’t know about? E.g., the gluten-intolerance issue today. No clue about that back then, but maybe that explained why Aunt Mildred and others spent so much time in the bathroom? Or why so many teas were also remedies for upset stomachs from who-knows-what bacterial development? Most likely, we just were clueless about all those aversive and/or unsanitary afflictions. As for the exercise aspects, I’m with you all the way. Too many labor-saving devices that allow sit-down media devices to eat up too much of our time.
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Hi Steve, I haven’t heard from you in a while; its nice to see you are still around. 🙂
Yeah much of this post is really said in jest but with an inkling of truth. I am mimicking my hero Will Rogers in that regard. But, you are right; Polio was still around then; and cancer and heart disease took many more lives than now. Perhaps that is why we didn’t see some of the things we see today. It was just a matter of them being further down the list and are now popping toward the top. But, autism is something that seems to be a recent thing or at least the magnitude of it. I wonder why that is??
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