Itching Where You Can't Scratch

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The Boy has come up with a case of poison something. We thought poison ivy, but the rash looks much more like poison oak. But really, does it matter? The earth poisoned my child. The first day he noticed it, he woke up with little red bumps and was itchy all over his forearms and his shins. We spent a lot of time checking out Google images of insect bites. *shiver* Eventually, he admitted to having tramped through the tall grass, looking for his soccer ball. He had shorts on, and a t-shirt. He pulled up weeds and such trying to get the ball. He simply bathed in the poisonous weeds. Then when he'd covered his hands with the plant's poisoned oil, he spread it around. If you don't know you have poison ivy, you learn a lot about your habits. For instance, he's got a red rash on either side of his forehead from where he slid his poisoned hands over those areas while pushing his hair back. Thank goodness, no ticks. Lesson learned, I guess. I mean, I could have told him a thousand times not to go walking through tall grass and brush with shorts on but he would not have listened. Now, he will listen and warn his friends. I wondered how it is that as children, we were so much smarter. We knew what poison ivy looked like. But we spent a lot more time in the weeds because we didn't have computers or smart phones. We had to know. The young generation has a different skill set, and that worries me about the future. I mean, if there is some kind of collapse of the grid, if there's an apocalypse that cripples technology, their skill set becomes useless. Survival skills are what will be necessary. Skills like recognizing poison weeds. I have never had poison ivy. Have you?