Remember playing tag in the DDT fog?

Now and then I've shared a story or two about the fun things my friends and I did to entertain ourselves when we were kids with friends or my kids -- and been amazed with how these stories differ from how kids entertain themselves today.

But in case I've not shared all of these stories with you, let me discuss a bit of this now: Depending on the seasons, we did normal things like building snow forts, going skating at the neighborhood ice rink, which had a hockey rink and a free-skate area, and was complete with lights and a warming house. It was built by icing a baseball field at the local grade school.

In more temperate weather, we played soccer baseball in the backyards, enjoyed playing jump rope and with jacks, and even built tree forts, etc. We had a secret clubhouse, too.

I also remember that summer meant taking swimming and tennis lessons, and occasionally even playing with dolls, though I wasn't too much into that.

One of the oddest things I've told my husband that I remembered doing was running behind the truck that would travel through the neighborhood streets on hot summer evenings, puffing out DDT spray.

Now my mother forbade us kids to do this, but our next door neighbors were great at it, and I can't really promise I never did it myself.

For sure, I remember looking out the window and seeing the kids playing in the fog. Shrieking and having a wonderful time.

I've not run into anyone else who ever admitted to playing in the bug spray fog but it is one of my very clear memories.

Which is why I was so surprised to read an article from Fox News this morning, which talks about doing exactly this.

Hopefully you'll click that link. And then let's talk about whether or not I'm the only one who remembers that back in the 60s running behind the DDT truck was one of summer's most fun activities for many kids... and what will this mean for our future health?

Well it seems I may have been the only one who remembers kids playing in the fog spewed out by their community's mosquito killing trucks.

I was a bit surprised, actually, to find an article referencing that this was a common occurance. All I can say is my two kids are in their 30s and so far -- fingers crossed -- appear to be genetically normal. So hopefully this means we didn't cause harm to future generations.

I have not read of any damage any of us "former kids" received directly. We don't glow in the dark, etc... Thank the Lord!

I did some research on humans and DDT and learned that during WWII, soldiers were regularly dusted with it to kill off lice.
This was news to me. But if you want to know more, here's a link to the article.

I grew up in the country in the first part of my youth, and we didn’t have mosquito trucks---not until we moved into town. Then we would follow it on our bikes thinking it was cool. No one told us we couldn’t and I’m as normal as the rest of the kids that did it,lol.

Shoot, we use to get slathered with tons of lotions or sprays that were to repel mosquitos. We played outside after dark doing all kinds of things; flashlight tag, hide and seek, going to the drive in theater, or just looking at the stars on a summers evening.

Thanks Cookie! I'm glad someone else remembers playing in the DDT fog. And yes, I'm happy to say that it seems it hasn't harmed any of us.

Weren't those fun things we did after dark as kids? I remember looking at the stars too. And flashlight tag.