The Importance of Being Dirty

The importance of being dirty

This past weekend the family and I boldly braved the holiday traffic and drove to Amelia Virginia.  I say boldly because traveling through Philly, Baltimore, DC, and Richmond on the Friday of a holiday weekend is by no means something to be taken lightly.  We survived and so did those around us.  However to those divers who insist on doing the speed limit in the passing lane, you are lucky I wasn’t driving my truck, because you never know when those machine guns are gonna get installed (see previous post).  Amelia Virginia is barely on the map, type it into goggle earth (Amelia Court House) and when the map zooms in, it zooms to an area that there is no street view and the resolution is fuzzy.  There is no beach in Amelia, no Marriott Select.

What we found in Amelia, or rather what others found and we just collected, is rocks. If ya can’t pick it or shoot it, ya gotta mine it, rocks. While I’m not a miner, one day long ago I graduated with a BS in Geology and although I have long since given up the rock hammer and hand lens for the keyboard and spreadsheet every once and awhile I’m able to regress into my primal sate and spend a day getting dirty.

What Amelia has is the Morefield Mine, it is a pegmatite and has Amethyst, garnet, topaz, and amazonite to name a few….they are all pretty rocks.  What makes it significant is the mine has been in operation since the early 1900’s and it is featured in the Smithsonian.  What makes it special is for a small fee you can shovel the mine tailings in a bucket, haul the bucket to a slues, and sift the material for cool rocks.  What makes it fun, is the dirt.  This isn’t any old dirt, it is mica rich clay.  It is red and sparkles in the sun, is slick and sticky when wet and gets into everything.  Its glorious dirt.

When we arrived my sons bailed out of the van, bent down and began collecting rocks in the parking lot.  After the brief safety speech we grabbed our gear and headed down to the pit, handing each kid a bucket and a shovel I told them to dig.  “Where?” the oldest asked.  “Anywhere you feel lucky” and I explained that the tailings were everywhere and it came down to a bit of luck. “Daddy, then what do we do?” So I showed them the sluice and how to work the shifters.  Puzzled, shovel in hand, my oldest looked at me and said” Daddy, we are going to get really dirty doing this.”  “Yep, that’s the point.”

It took my younger son a bit to get over the idea of getting so wet and muddy with full permission.  I think for him It’s better to do it when he is in his Sunday best, but soon he too caught on and spent the day walking into the clay filled mud puddles, and pawing though the dirt. 

Today we got home, made a picnic and quickly hit the pool.  As I was slathering the sunscreen on my kids it hit me how foreign it is for boys to smear anything that smells good on their bodies.  In the mine by sons where rubbing the red clay deep into their arms, they will paint themselves with rocks, they will roll on a pile of dirt (actually saw this happen) but getting sunscreened is horrible.  I’m right there with them; I refer to sunscreen as grease and would rather go three days without a shower than wear it. (My wife has seen this and my sons view a shower is punishment and a bath is how you play with your pool toys in the winter.)

Looking around at the pool it is common to see a mom grab her son by the arm and grease him up, the kid squirms and writhes like and eel.  Daughters stand still and enjoy the rub.  I think this is a basic difference between men and woman.  Men clean themselves in the shower after working outside.  Woman, shampoo, condition, exfoliate, deep clean, rise, repeat, moisturize after gardening.  Don’t get me wrong; men as a species appreciate the female efforts. Lotion? What is lotion? Dry skin, Ha I laugh in your general direction, better to dry out then to moisturize….anything to avoid the smell, the slimy feeling. I can go all day with fish guts on my clothing, but can’t go 10 minutes with the smell of lotion on my hands.

Through the anthropological lens:

Women go to great lengths to appear youthful and to smell good.  Since these acts are do not fulfill the basic needs for food and safety, we can assume it is to help with that other basic need….. the most basic instinct, procreation. Men typically do not go to such great lengths to improve their appearance and olfactory disposition.   So does that mean women tolerate, or maybe even prefer a slightly riper mate?  Or to rephrase would the Marlboro man be quite so enticing to woman if he shaved and took a manicure?  My guess is no, at a certain level woman need men to be a bit more harsh then themselves.  Which is good, and which is why men can prepare for an evening out and watch a football game in the time it takes his date to prepare, which is also good.  And again we appreciate the effort; it contrasts to the dirt so nicely.

My theory is that I’m not alone in the need to get dirty.  Mike Row made a career out of it, my sons made getting dirty an art form, and frankly it just feels good.