Calamine Kid

My sister and I were playing at a cousins house one day.  Cathy and her sisters always like to play in the ditches and catch like crayfish things.  While we were there Di and I followed her into the ditch.  Well, I should say Diane followed Cathy into the ditch, while I stayed close to the top by the edge of the lawn.  Diane was not afraid to try anything, but I was very careful to wisely choose activities that were safe for me.  This ditch was deep with weeds on both banks, and the water looked unclean and deeper than I was comfortable about walking in.  Di and Cathy had taken off their shoes to wade in the ditch to catch this ugly little creatures, YUK!  Cathy said the best place to find them was in the big metal tile that went under the road.  My thinking was that this was not smart or safe to be doing, but they were having fun.  So I followed the bank of the ditch and watched from the field when they were in the metal tile.  They came back to the house with several creepy things from the ditch.  The next morning I got up to discover my arms and legs were gather itchy.  Later that day mom took me to the doctors and found out I must have walked through poison ivy.  At home mom swabbed me up with Calamine Lotion that makes you want to itch like crazy when it dries.  Soon it was on my face, stomach, neck let's just say it was everywhere my hands touched.  I looked like Casper the friendly ghost, with a touch of pink.  Diane who went into the ditch did not get it.  Nor since we slept together she did not catch it.  She would laugh looking at me because I did not want to go outside with all that lotion on I looked awful.  Well, I also found out a few years later that when someone burns poison ivy, standing in the smoke made me break out big time.  Why is it that I catch  everything but Di doesn't?  The funny part was I did not even know what it looked like so I could avoid contact.  Which was the reason I kept getting  it over and over!!  Even today I am not sure if I could distinguish the plant.  It just seemed to me I was always getting coated with some chemical or lotion or first aid cream.  Sure kept my mom on her toes!!