You would think my papaw’s barn was some kind of tourist attraction.

Whenever any of my cousins or friends came over to play, they usually asked if we could go to the barn. To be honest, I didn’t want to go there. To me it was a stinky place that I tried to avoid.

I even heard stories from my cousins who were my mom’s childhood playmates. And guess what? They all wanted to play in the barn too. Their favorite thing was to jump out of the loft and onto the hay. I have to admit, that does sound like fun, but it’s something my mom would have never let me do.

But I did love to ride on Papaw’s tractor with him. Now that was a treat. But not everybody enjoyed the tractor the same way I did.

My mom used to tell this story and laugh. It’s still hard for me to imagine.

Apparently one of our cousins loved papaw’s tractor too. I’m withholding our cousin’s name since I’m sure this is not a story she’s too proud of. Anyway, this cousin used to wait for Papaw to drive back home from the field for lunch. He’d park his tractor outside of the carport. That’s when she would sneak to get to the tractor tires.

I know what you’re probably thinking; she wanted to climb up them. Nope. Her objective was to get to what was between tire treads.

Yes, you read that correctly.

She would grab a handful of the stuff from the tractor tire treads and eat it. Since it had come from the cow field, it wasn’t just mud and dirt stuck between the treads.

“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” Daniel 1:8 (KJV)

I don’t think our cousin was trying to “defile” herself. For some reason, she wanted something that wasn’t good for her. In fact, we all probably want things that aren’t good for us, but that doesn’t mean we should have them. God only gave you one body, so eat and drink what is healthy to help take good care of it.

By the way, if I ever walk by a tractor that has driven through chocolate, I may be tempted to have a tractor treat as well.