Chewing Tar
Stone Age Chewing GumWhen I was just a kid I used to play with a neighbor's kids all the time. They had a play house in their back yard which was just an old tin roofed shed.
The shed had places on it where someone had put tar where the shed had leaked. The neighbor's kids pulled pieces of the tar off and chewed it like gum. They introduced me to the practice of chewing it also. I don't know if their mother knew they did this or not but I am sure she would have nixed the idea of their chewing tar. I am just as certain my Mother would have had a fit knowing I was doing such a thing!
Any way, we did it and we didn't die so I guess it was not that harmful. I did look on Google about it and I didn't see any place where it was claimed to be bad for you. It said, in fact, that tar has carbolic acid in it and that could have been helpful if you had a sore throat or other problems in the mouth.
The 5000-year-old piece of fossilized tar in the picture was discovered lately by a student while she was on a archaeological dig on the west coast of Finland. The wad of tar still has teeth impressions on it and looks just like a dirty piece of modern chewing gum. It was found to be made from birch bark tar.
So my friends and I were not the first to chew tar! Actually, the tar had no taste, but it was sticky and fun to chew. I think for now I will just stick with Wrigley's gum and forget the tar.
posted by kyra lafain @ 4/19/2009 12:30:00 PM
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