So we took off our clothes and marched without dignity across the gravel driveway. It was decided that the best way to get us straight from the car into the shower, where we could wash the outside world’s chemicals away, was to enter the house completely naked. In order to wear sunscreen without fragrances, Kathleen Hale was given a mixture of zinc oxide and safflower oil by Susie Molloy to avoid the sun. “We’ll do our best to get you cleaned,” Susie promised us. I’d risen at dawn, vomited on a tiny six-passenger plane, and walked one mile down a busy highway in a town called Show Low (160 miles from Phoenix) to get to Susie’s car. For her, we reeked like a Bath and Body Works store flooded with vodka – or as she put it, “floral, with chemical solvents. We used fragrance-free soap and shampoo, as well as a natural deodorant, which, according to the description on the box, was basically a rock picked off the ground with a cap on it.ĭespite our best efforts, Deb’s sensitive nose picked up our body odors. She also made us swear not to get any perms before we came, which made me think she had been in the desert for a long time.įor weeks, Mae and I avoided makeup, lotion, perfume, hair products, scented detergent, fabric softener, dryer sheets. We would wear Susie’s clothes, and sleep at Susie’s house. In order to protect her, we’d agreed to various terms: we would not a get rental car or stay at a motel, because those were places where chemical cleaners were used. Susie had warned us that Deb, a sort-of-roommate who lived in her driveway, was extremely sensitive to scents. Susie called it being “sensitive to the whole world”. In 1869, doctor George Beard published several papers blaming modern civilization and steam power for ailments such as “drowsiness, cerebral irritation, pain, pressure and heaviness in the head”.Īccording to him, other indications of chemical sensitivity included “fear of society, fear of being alone, fear of contamination … fear of fears … fear of everything”. The idea that modern conveniences cause pain dates to the mid-19th century. She says the aluminum in the truck is preferable to homes with Wi-Fi and electricity. Deb Schmeltzer has been living out of her truck for the past five years.
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