Kids say the darnedest things

In response to a call for volunteers from State Rep. Mike Tryon to help out at the McHenry County Farm Bureau's AG Expo, I worked as a chaperon for a wonderful group of 23 Harvard third-graders recently. The kids were given an excellent primer on the many facets of agriculture and its impact on them and society by numerous agricultural experts from the McHenry County area.

I had to share one particular experience as "my kids" sat at the Food Safety Booth and learned about the importance of preparing food safely. The instructor was displaying how bacteria gets transferred from raw food into humans, making the point that frequent hand washing is necessary to avoid getting sick.

To illustrate this, she held up a rubber chicken leg and placed it into a tray. She had a second tray also containing a rubber chicken leg, which for display purposes had yellow liquid surrounding it representing bacteria contained on raw chicken. She picked up the chicken leg from the 'bacteria' laden tray and transferred it from one hand to another, after which she picked up a piece of bread and began to butter it.

"Now," she asked the kids, "What's wrong with this?" Immediately a little hand shot up and one of my charges, no doubt a future CSI Special Investigator, answered with enthusiasm, "The chicken is rubber!"

Made my day.

Steve Gohmann

Huntley