[at-l] Poison Ivy

[janl2@mindspring.com (Jan Leitschuh)]

I have a poison ivy question/observation. But first:

Last April, I met some remarkable home-schooled children - yes, children,
aged 12, 14 and 16 - who were hiking the Trail. 
They got on in Gatlinburg, TN. Happy, positive, resourceful kids. Friendly
and wide open as puppies. The eldest, the girl Sass, would read a chunk of
"Ivanhoe" to the other two at night in the shelters. Hope she found the rest
of the book...
I last saw them at Trail Days in May. The Cummings family, Sass, Torch and
Bo. Does anyone know how they did? Did they finish?

Anyway, they were immune to poison ivy. I actually saw them pulling it out
from around my tentsite for me (thoughtful kids, those home-schoolers) at
Damascus. They fashioned me some extra tent stakes out of poison ivy
"sticks" (the climbing version). That made for an interesting time breaking
camp, as I am highly allergic.

They said their secret came from an older mountain woman, their hiking
mentor actually, who had advised them to eat two tiny poison ivy leaves each
spring. Mouse-ear-sized, eaten when the leaves are bronzey-red. They'll be
out in about six weeks. 

Anyone ever hear of this? The kids swore they used to be allergic..

Is there any immunological basis for this? Anyone care to experiment (I'm
right behind you, buddy-ro...)



DTimm65344@aol.com wrote:
> 
> I solved this problem during my youth by being dosed so many times and
> getting painted with that purple stuff so many times that I no longer react
> to the stuff - not the recommended way to get immune, but apparently that's
> what happened.
> 
> Black&blue - but no longer purple
> 
> In a message dated 02/19/02 6:33:19 PM Eastern Standard Time, kahley@ptd.net
> writes:
> 
> > Ahhh.............poison ivy...the maintainers ban..................
> 
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