When I was a kid we used to look
for shiny black globs of tar bubbling up from the pavement, or find a crew who were
patching or surfacing roads with tar. We would then tease a lump off the road
and chew it. Yup, chew it. Like gum only it tasted better. We survived (Although
one of those guys drowned surfing. Can we make a tar connection? Doubt it.) into
old age without any harmful side effects. Any else out there ever chew tar? It
turns out that lots of people have chewed tar. Road tar, roofing tar, pine tar,
spruce tar and just about every other kind you can think of. And the universal
opinion is that it is better that chewing gum.
The thing is, I don’t know if the
tar used today to patch roads is the same stuff as when I was a kid. So, I won’t
go so far as to recommend that you try it. Really too bad, though. Chewing tar
was a grand way to augment any activity. I started on this because I read a research study that showed living near a coal tar sealed road increased the likelihood of getting cancer. Bullshit, my brain said, I used to chew the stuff. From there proceeded the above side trip to memory land.
http://genforum.genealogy.com/memorylane/messages/24239.html
Information:
Article citation: E.
Spencer Williams, Barbara J. Mahler, Peter C. Van Metre. Cancer Risk from Incidental Ingestion
Exposures to PAHs Associated with Coal-Tar-Sealed Pavement. Environmental Science & Technology,
2013; 47 (2): 1101 DOI: 10.1021/es303371t
So interesting - What did it taste like?
ReplyDeleteFor a brief period, I used to chew tar. We'd climb up on our public school's roof (a flat roof) and pick out a small blob that had bubbled out of the gravel and chew away. I would have been about 10 years old (I'm 60 years now). What was I doing on the school roof? Bored, I guess. We clambered onto roofs, up into trees...when was that last time you saw a kid climbing a tree? Our parents didn't regulate our every move. Kids of World Unite...take back your childhood!!
ReplyDeleteToronto, Canada (Rob Ford never chewed tar and look what happened to him)
These were the fun things us kids did in the 1940's....we were so excited when the tar truck came, cause my brother and our little friends would get the fresh tar to chew on. Road tar back then was heavy and sticky stuff....like chewing tobacco (which was just as bad).
DeleteThese were the fun things us kids did in the 1940's....we were so excited when the tar truck came, cause my brother and I and our little friends would get the fresh tar to chew on. Road tar back then was heavy and sticky stuff....like chewing tobacco (which was just as bad).
DeleteThanks for reading my blog, cowjazz. That would have been in about 1964 I figure. I thought kids had moved on to other things by then. I am 74, and chewed the stuff in the late 40/s and early 50s. Amen to the lack of real childhoods these days. I live in an area, rural but somewhat developed, and I still don't see kids out on bikes or playing in the streams or woods. Damn sad. I may have to write a blog on it. BTW, I grew up on urban Long Island. You?
ReplyDeleteGrew up on the outskirts of Scarborough, which at the time was a suburb of Toronto(now incorporated). Dirt roads, ravines, well-water, horses and chickens next door...the whole area was just teetering on the edge of development. I googled "chewing tar" this morning after a conversation with friends last night in which we reminisced about childhood survival tactics and oddball experiences (they had never heard of chewing tar) and up came your blog. Looking forward to exploring more of your writings.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Menn this is so weird.... we were so poor to afford gum that my parents used to bring us blocks of shiny tar to chew.....
ReplyDeleteExactly that’s why we chewed it too…it never amazes me how dumbfounded my kids are when I this up!!!
DeleteOh yeah! I did! I was about 5. My friends chewed it, too. Fresh, warm, delicious road tar. Good memories.. :)Lol
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading my stuff. May I ask what decade this was? My tar days were the late 40s and early to mid 50s.
ReplyDeleteEarly 1960s, walking home from school, a friendly roofer offer a piece of tar to chew on. Stuck with me, the memory not the tar. He was chewing tar and had good bright teeth, so I tried it, not terrible, but haven't done it since
ReplyDeleteEarly 1960s, walking home from school, a friendly roofer offer a piece of tar to chew on. Stuck with me, the memory not the tar. He was chewing tar and had good bright teeth, so I tried it, not terrible, but haven't done it since
ReplyDeleteThe workers were roofing today and tar fell in my room, I freaked out. Then my mom told me the same story about chewing tar from the road and that was why she didn't care about the fumes or the tar. I am just looking around the internet for stories like hers, she's 65 years old, and doesn't know if the tar today is made from the same stuff either. She also used to ear beef raw and milk directly from the cow. Well, I'll keep searching.
ReplyDeleteI was reading Carson McCullers' book "A Member of The Wedding" when the heroine, Frankie, age 12 is chewing tar and almost fell out of bed remembering my own tar-chewing days circa 1947,age 9.
ReplyDeleteGetting tempted to try it again.
My friends and I chewed tar! Loved it and it cleaned your teeth. It was in a small CA desert town in the late 50's and early 60's. And yes, we did have money to buy chewing gum and we did chew it, however, there was just something about that chunk of tar...
ReplyDeleteThese were the fun things us kids did in the 1940's....we were so excited when the tar truck came, cause my brother and I and our little friends would get the fresh tar to chew on. Road tar back then was heavy and sticky stuff....like chewing tobacco (which was just as bad).
ReplyDeleteI did roofing in the mid 70s. We chewed tar nearly everyday. It was good.
ReplyDeleteMy grandma always told the story of running behind the tar truck with her little friends. They would carry a stick and a guy at the back of the truck would drip some on the stick. As it cooled, they would chew it off the stick like gum. She lived into her 80's.
ReplyDeleteDid the same in South L.A. in late 30’s, early 40’s. No cautions from adults. I’m almost 90.
ReplyDelete