Have you washed your hands?

Every mother and father has asked a child this question at least once a day and probably more often. Grimy hands at the dinner table are frowned upon, and hands used as makeshift handkerchiefs are even worse.

The routine question has taken on new meaning these days with the staph bug we hear about invading schools and gyms.

But the handwashing that we routinely did as children and permitted our children to do also, is a far cry from what Nurse Baldwin at the Vernon County Health Department is advocating.

When I was director of the Neighbors Center I took a course, along with our employees, about health care for older adults. To my surprise one of the things we were tested on was washing our hands. I answered that of course I knew how to wash my hands. But I didn't. We were instructed to wash for as long as it took to sing Happy Birthday to yourself. We were also told to clean under the fingernails, wash between our fingers, and be sure to get to the backs of our hands as well as the palms.

I have mastered all that now and most often do follow the rules. However in restrooms I want to scold some women who leave the stall and just head toward the door.

I get to thinking about that door that they have just gone through, using their unwashed hands to open it. If I wash my hands real well, how can I keep from undoing the good that I accomplished if I go out that door?

I have started the habit of using a paper towel (if the restroom has them in addition to, or instead of, the hateful hand blowers) to open the door.

But then I am stuck with a damp paper towel when I get outside. I don't like to put a damp towel in my pocket so if there isn't a trash basket in sight I usually just end of carrying it until I get to the car, or find another way to dispose of it.

In the past, ladies would sometimes carry a hankie in their hands for style. A beige damp paper towel doesn't add to my charm, but maybe it does keep my hands more sanitary.

Problems also exist at home with the new suggestions. Nurse Baldwin also says never to use a towel a second time. Now, if I am thinking green to protect our environment, how much harm is it doing to wash fifteen towels a day when the three of us each wash our hands before every meal, take a bath and probably have at least one other occasion to clean up? I guess I could air dry my hands some of the times, but I haven't solved this problem yet.

I wonder if I use the towel clockwise and dry my hands on 1 o'clock the first time I wash up, then advance down the towel a bit and use another spot along about two, and so forth until I have used up a day's handwashing with the hours. Do you think that will suffice, or am I courting problems here?

I remember in my youth that we each had one towel and one washcloth apiece each week. It hung on my own towel rack in the bathroom, and if I washed my hands somewhere else then I dried them on a rolling towel in the kitchen or on my mother's apron. We all grew up healthy and reasonably clean, but we didn't know about this new bug that has visited us. But we did know about a lot of other bugs and we didn't know about antibiotics.

I guess whatever I do I am more sanitary than I used to be, and maybe we will survive. I'm about to just wash my hands of the whole thing!