Clean Dirt

I was one of those kids who was always dirty. Not like dirty-perverted, I mean dirty-covered-with-dirt. It would crust onto my knees and get ground in between my toes.

I had one babysitter when I was 8 or so, she was obsessed with us kids being clean, always telling us to "wash up" -- wash our hands before lunch and stuff like that. Like I hadn't ingested enough bacteria at that point in my life to become immune to watever was living under my fingernails. It annoyed me.

One day, sick of washing up, I asked my babysitter if there was any such thing as "clean dirt."

"No" she said without a pause. Sorely dissapointed, I accepted her answer, sad that dirt and I could never reasonably coexist.

I'm grown up now, and after some thought, I think my babysitter was wrong. There IS such a thing as "clean dirt," one theoretically could wash dirt and it would be clean after that, right? Then it would be safe to leave it crusted on your knees and between your toes if you wanted to.

Right? Or am I nuts?