Color it Red

 I like bright clear colors. I often wear red, because when I go shopping for clothes the offerings are rows of blacks, dull browns, stodgy grays, and faded greens that dominate the showroom floors. It makes no difference if I' m in Lord & Taylors or Wal Mart.
   I get the feeling buyers and manufactures do not like women and work to have them fade into the woodwork. That's being cynical, but anyway, when I see a garment that is red I'm drawn to it.
   This article is not about my taste in clothes, but the color red itself and it's fascinating history.
    First off, in ancient times it was one of the first and easiest coloring agents available - it was obtained from ochre, a clay impregnated with iron oxide. Archaeologists, in 2000, found evidence of it being scraped from the walls of a cave in South Africa 170,000 to 40,000 years ago. They theorized it was used to color human skin, similar to a blue later used by the Druids, of the British Isles, for religious ceremonies.
   A cave painting in Spain (15,000-16,000 BC) shows a bison painted with ochre. The planet, Mars appears red because of iron oxide on its surface. A local example of red staining from clay can be seen in the vertical striping of horizontal layers of rock, on fresh road cuts between Burkesville and Thompkinsville, KY.
   Red covers many shades, from the pink of flowers to the deep burgundy of wine. The color for dyes and paint today is derived from plant, insect, and mineral sources besides clay.
   Red used in paintings has staying power reaching back to the frescoes or murals in tombs and on pottery of Ancient Egypt and the lava buried city of Pompeii. The Roman emperor Charlemagne, the first to adopt Christianity, painted his palace red.
   Red used as symbolism or to convey meaning has a duel personality. The robes of the Catholic cardinals are red to indicate the blood of Christ, while at the same time it is the color of the garments assigned to Satan, the devil.
   When you "roll out the red carpet" it is a form of a salute to the status and greetings accorded to individuals of importance. It denotes power, victory, and wealth. But again, it also symbolizes sin, promiscuity, and decadence of females.
   When "you're seeing red" you are angry, while if you "painted the town red," you had a merry ole time. In Eastern (China & Japan) countries today and in Victorian times in the US, brides wore red as a symbol of happiness.
   Red clothing can easily be seen in a crowd, hence its use in military uniforms through out history from the ancient Greeks to the US Marines dress uniform.
   This began not with my clothes, but when a salesman told me that white was the most popular color for motor vehicles. Maybe elsewhere, but it wasn't what I was seeing locally.
   There were very few red vehicles sitting on car lots, but I counted fifty-one on the road from town to home one Saturday morning. They included every type, from an eighteen-wheeler, a bus, a SUV with a matching canoe to an electric car, plus my own red Jeep.
  Oh yes, I also saw two red wagons. Do you remember having one of your own? I'd say red is the most popular vehicle color in South Central Kentucky according to my unofficial survey.
Nash Black, author of Games of Death.