The poison oak story reminds me of when I first moved back to MA. We lived in a house that back up to acres of conservation land. At the edge of the grass, there was a brook and lots of cool stuff for little kids to play in, that was part of our property. After we had been here about a month, I got frantic because my 5 year old developed a weird rash and was carrying on about it. I thought he had some strange thing.
It was poison ivy. The pediatrician must have thought I was really dumb. None of that in the desert.