Bathing, whether you need it or not.

I grew up in a day where we took baths twice a week: Wednesday and Saturday. I always thought it was so we would smell good for Sunday school and Wednesday night prayer meeting. Fortunately, I had a more cosmopolitan roommate who taught me by example that it was important to shower daily.

In the summers, I traveled as second tenor in a college quartet. We had a chaperone (oops, preacher who should have gone to college) who traveled with us. We always looked forward to his weekly Saturday night baths – especially on Friday. He thought that baths drained the strength out of a person. Well, it surely helped with his limburgerish odor.

When I was the principal of an alternative school, we had a boy the kids called “Big Smelly Larry”. I bought some air freshener for the teachers to use when he left the room. It did not take long, for some of the students to snitch the can and spray all around Larry. “Let us spray” was their mantra. When I counseled Larry, I learned that his home did not have hot water and that it was almost impossible for him to get out of a tub.

Now, I live where I regularly sense the walnut smell of unwashed bodies – especially on the elevator. Although they do not like it, the managers talk with the offenders as needed.

BTW, I found the lip-slicked dirty cup and dried food fork they have been looking for. That is what happens when you use sawdust instead of a real detergent.

AsA

REMINDER: The War on Christmas begins the day after Thanksgiving.