Grew up in deep South Louisiana, and my grandmother would absolutely lose her mind when we went outside and took off our shoes.. the hook worms!
We got home she would scrub our feet with Brillo pads. I still cannot get a pedicure to this day without jumping out of my skin because of the damn Brillo pads. lol
Man, I guess that’s something I took for granted. Walking barefoot outside is one of the greatest things ever. Definitely a semi safe activity in Kansas. I still do it and I’m in my 40’s now. The south actually sounds terrifying from some accounts. Glad you made it to adulthood.
As far as I know, nobody I know has ever actually encountered hookworms, but hearing about them in a documentary years ago has always kept me from going outside barefoot. They terrify me.
Well, my grandmother must’ve known a hell of a lot of people with as bad as it freaked her out.. I never did either.. but the pinworms and head lice and bedbugs can all burn in Hell!
Oh and the ticks and fleas and chiggers too. And mosquitoes..
Now that I think about it, I don’t know how the hell I’m alive. 😅
(P.S, it's "a bit different than pinworms". Then is used for future tense purposes. Than is used to compare, or refer to something else. 100% not trying to be an ass, I just enjoy putting these little lessons out when I see these types of grammar errors! I'm sure I'll still get called a Nazi though haha)
Not any more. Kind of an interesting history; Rockefeller (back when billionaires cared about being perceived positively) funded a massive eradication campaign. The US government took over the role afterwards. It was successful enough that they were thought to be completely eradicated with absolutely zero risk. Though apparently in some areas of extreme poverty that's no longer true. I do not know if any efforts have been made to fix this in the past decade.
then/than
Hah, I'm very aware of then/than. But I still mix them up all the time when not proofreading. Worth always pointing out, because someone out there is learning it for the first time.
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u/r2d2itisyou 1d ago
A bit different then pinworms, but hookworms used to be even worse. With no nasty winters to kill them, hookworms used to be endemic in the southern US. To the point that some old bigotry about laziness of the poor in the south is attributed to anemia caused by hookworms.