Summer job with U.S. Department of Agriculture between my junior and senior years at Cornell. Majoring in Ecology, Evolution and Systematics.

I did grunt work in the federal fire ant eradication program which involved the aerial dispersion of cornmeal containing the insecticide Myrex.

My job was to drive a beat-up pickup truck with no air conditioning all over Mississippi hell and gone, digging up fire ant mounds in various fields and pastures and record whether or not ants were still alive. Then mark those on a map.

On the way to examine one of the the areas, I spotted this document plastered to the back of a diamond warning sign.

It took me a while to make sure no one saw me, and I peeled it off. Kept it ever since as a reminder of a dark time I hoped would never come again.