----- Original Message -----
From:
g*@ebold.com
To: m*@ucdavis.edu
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2007 3:44
AM
Subject: 1959
On a beach in Santa Cruz a group of
freshmen were having a hay ride and picnic on the beach. They built a fire,
not realizing they were using poison oak kindling. The next day those who sat
in the smoke were covered with rashes. One young girl had on a bathing suit
and she had to go to the hospital for treatment. I was afraid if they
had inhaled the smoke their lungs would be affected but thank heavens
they weren't.
A colleague was badly affected by
p.o. as a young man. He could never sit where the wind was blowing across p.o.
because he would almost immediately break out in a rash without ever having
touched it.
My brother remembers a fellow during
the war at Fort Ord who thought if he took off all his clothes and rolled in
poison oak he could get a discharge. After the hospital, he was put in the
brig.
This put me in mind of some idiotic teenage kids
in Christchurch (NZ) who a few years ago deliberately made a fire with
oleander prunings so they could inhale the smoke "for kicks". The outcome
was some very sick kids and if I remember correctly even some deaths. NOT a
good idea anyway.
Moira
