The Delta Crud

I have caught the Delta Crud. This is evidently the term for the ubiquitous cold that spreads through the Delta several times per year.

My children all have it, and that's why several of them have missed school. Others are constantly up and down out of their seats to get Kleenex. A thin crust of dried greenish snot builds up around their nostrils and they raise their hands, covering their noses, and gesture towards the Kleenex in the back of the room.

When you have the crud, your throat gets dry and sore, then your sinuses fill and your head heats up to about 100 degrees Farenheit. When the fever diminishes, your nose fills with crud and then it runs (away with the spoon.) I'm not sure how long it lasts, because I still have it. Two other teacher told me that, since moving to the Delta, they have had different levels of "the crud" constantly.

I figured that it is the beginning of the school-year cold. Stick a bunch of six year olds in the room and you're all going to end up sick. But others tie it to the crop dusting. Llittle yellow planes buzz over the cotton and soybean fields that line both sides of the highway on which I drive South to school, raining powdered chemicals behind them. Still others tie it to the mosquito trucks, that drive nightly up and down the streets of Clarksdale, spewing cloulds of mosquito killer in their wakes.

Perhaps it is a combination of those three things and maybe even some allergies tossed in the mix. All I know is that I go through a box of Kleenex per day (there is no non-drowsy anti-runny nose medication.) Cruddy crud crud.