Growing up in Louisa – Sustainability
Weekly feature . . . by Mike Coburn
To continue on last week’s theme, two of the popular words being thrown about are ‘sustainability’ and ‘green.’ Both terms used by those people that are ecologically minded whether in the public or private sectors. They are ‘trendy’ as if it was a brand new concept. Like so many of my Baby Boomer friends I just shake my head and smile, as I remember those former days when we grew up. We didn’t use ‘catch phases,’ but out of necessity used common sense to not only stretch the dollar, but save mother earth. Last week I wrote an article having to do with fixing things instead of throwing them away. This week’s article is a companion writing intended to take the subject in a slightly different direction.
At issue are the charges that we have nearly ruined mother earth in our time and our father’s time. Yes, yes, our generation did do some bad things. Mostly out of ignorance, we polluted waterways, dumped our chemicals nearly anywhere, used nasty products such as DDT, asbestos, and PCB’s, and threw our trash over the hill. Troops returning from two world wars took an easy road and dumped all kinds of armaments and chemicals that were no longer needed and too dangerous to store. The government was the biggest perpetrator of those stupid activities. I know from history that they just pushed the stuff into the ocean, or bulldozed it into landfills (new word for dumps, or trash heaps). It was’t meant to do harm to the environment, but we lacked a level of understanding or the risks.
Neither can we simple folk completely dodge the bullets because, again, out of pure ignorance we tossed the old ringer-washers and other trash into our ‘hollers.’ Our creeks were full of radiators and old tires, ice boxes, broken planters, and trash that if saved might actually have value today. We didn’t know better. No one meant to harm the environment. Throwing trash out the car windows kept the car clean and reasoned after all, it would take a lot of trash to really make a difference to so many open miles.
That said, I have some grandchildren that have never worn a real cloth diaper. All my kids had those wonderful, double-lined cotton breechcloths that had so many uses. Today, kids who can’t afford it are spending forty to eighty bucks a month for the convenience of throwing away a stinky diaper, destined for the landfill. That’s an entirely different kind of green, folks! Bacteria city! I’m not just talking about the poop, but do we really think this is something we even want to sustain? Come on. Get a washing machine and invest in some of the best cleaning rags you’ll ever have. Use the throwaways on trips where you don’t have a diaper pail. The new products are a solution, but they aren’t the best day-to-day way at home.
When you pick up that six-pack of pop at the super market, look back and remember the days when we returned our used, empty bottles to the corner grocery. We got back our deposit, or someone else’s, and picked up a drink to take home. We kids made good money scouring the ditches and lots around town to gather up enough bottles to pay for a cool one. Some among us saved the money for some long-term goals, but at the same time mother earth was better cared for. Bottles went back to the plant, were washed and refilled, often over and over. That’s real recycling.
The big old Coke-Cola Bottling Co., sitting down past the lumber yards on Clay Street, processed thousands of bottles every day. Men like Jimmy Spears and others would deliver the pop to the stores and filling stations all around the county. My friends and I never bought a Coke that we didn’t look at the bottom to see where the bottle originated. Oh, the drink didn’t necessarily come from those far-flung places, but the bottle was made for that site. It was used, returned, perhaps in another town, then reused and passed along. I saw bottles from Chattanooga, Atlanta, St. Louis, and all around. Most had Louisa’s name, but at least twenty to thirty percent were from other places. Reusing those bottles meant profit and actually encouraged recycling. Just like cloth diapers, the bottles were used again and again.
It was after the war years and the depression so it was natural to try and make things last. After all, money was hard to come by in those days. We had to make do, and if something broke we didn’t throw it out, we fixed it. Dad’s and Grandads were famous ‘fixers’ when the metal toy was broken or bent. The boys learned to fix their bikes, replace spokes, and patch a tire. Paper bags, then often called ‘pokes’ were reused around the house until they finally wore thin and tore. School books were wrapped with paper covers that our moms made from the pokes. Those covers kept the books clean and protected. After all, the books were really school property and had to be reused every year. With these covers a kid could write his name on the front and occasionally write initials proclaiming love for someone. A cover reversed could be used again if their love forsook them.
Many of us know about the ‘feed-sack’ dresses and shirts, sometimes with fond memories, other times with a sadness that these homemade cloths were all they had. The perceived stigma missed the mark since caring people tended to see the person. It was good that someone with loving hands provided some very nice outfits. That was really special. This effort should have been more widely recognized for what it was. A sacrifice of effort for a precious child is a sign of ultimate ‘caring’ for some moms who had little other means to provide. Peer pressure was there though and always will be, I’m sure.
Each winter I slept under a pile of quilts that granny made. Usually the material was made up of scraps from old, worn-out clothing. Crazy quilts or something fancier were common and took effort to make. Whether done in a ‘bee’ or sitting alone and sewing in a frame, we often took it for granted. Sustainability? Oh, yes. Some of those quilts still survive hanging on display over a banister or at the end of the guest-room bed. They have warmth left in them for yet another day. There’s also good value for those well-made with provenance. You can see them on antiques roadshow. Quilt collecting can be big money. That’s recycling, too.
What kid hasn’t worn a ‘hand-me-down?’ Raising five kids and having twelve grandkids, means that those size ‘so and so’ jeans are passed to yet another. We were given clothing from church friends and relatives that surely has saved us thousands of dollars in our lifetime. We have gone to garage sales, estate sales, and have purchased houses crammed full of clothing, some still having the original sales tags. After a good washing these were passed all around and put back into the flow.
I’m not talking American Pickers here. Yes, finding a vintage this or that can be a lot of fun and bring memories rushing, but that also demonstrates another viewpoint. Those that gather and keep gathering yet cannot give up their prizes to those who need them, must surely have a weakness. What I recommend is the healthy approach to find useful things for others, not for self. There are people in need so having barns full of stuff is crazy. Sell it and give the money to charity if you don’t need it.
A simple Google will take you to long lists of companies that are talking about sustainability. Most mean environmentally safe, or less destructive. Some mean ‘self-supporting’ on the long term. To me, sustainability simply means it will go on and on. It will not go to waste. Landfills are made up of piles of plastics and trash. Some of these could be reused, others not so much.
When in college during the dark ages, I took a course that led me to go to a grocery store to buy a list of products commonly found in many shopping carts. Returning to school we unwrapped the stuff and weighed it. The amount of wrapping outweighed the products many times over. Some items were wrapped, often twice or more, within packages and then individually, once or twice, before you could get to the actual product. None of that is reusable. It will all go to the landfill, or at best to a recycling center to be ground up, or melted, and made into more packing that will later be thrown away.
We certainly owe it to mother earth and to future generations to stop the destructive cycle of taking earth’s resources, reshaping them and tossing them underground. We have seen that plastics are not bio-degradable, yet that is the preferred material for packaging, wrapping, storing, or even for making cars and siding. We know wood can be reused over and over and for that matter, grown again, but we often choose to use byproducts made from petroleum. We make synthetics in favor of using natural products that are truly recyclable, or sustainable.
So the question is: Why was our generation seen as wasteful, while this one continues to buy disposable products that for the most part, will not ever be anything but waste? Is buying green new, or is it a ‘feel-good’ phase that is politically correct but a lie?
The modern awakening for those that remember was the TV commercial with Chief Iron Eyes Cody standing on the roadside when trash was thrown at his feet. We will remember the tear running down his face as he saw how white man was treating his land. That was a good commercial because it stopped many of us from littering or further polluting the landscape. Still, at the same time we were undergoing a renaissance of invention of boxed products to replace the natural. No one did anything from scratch anymore. Dresses and shirts were ‘store-bought’ just as were cake mixes, rolls, and TV dinners. Am I advocating going back? Well, maybe just a little. Cakes are cheaper and taste better when made from flour at home rather from a box. They have the additional benefit of being healthier without all the preservatives. The pride of making such a successful cake is worth the effort. Still, if you need one quickly, taking advantage of availability, a box will do when in a pinch.
A favorite saying I heard a lot when I was growing up was when someone’s car wouldn’t start. “Get a horse,” someone would shout and everyone would laugh. Not so simple then and really not so simple today. Yes, horses pretty much start every time and may know their own way home, and certainly they reproduce. Besides transportation, their byproducts are biodegradable. On the other hand, few of us have the acre of pasture or for that matter, a desire to climb into the saddle and slowly trod to work at the office. We can’t and shouldn’t go back, but we really need to look a little deeper about what we can capture from the past that is worthwhile.
Saturday night baths started with the grownups, then the children with the infants last. The old saying to not ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ should remind us to think before we toss. It applies across the board.
Finding a balance is the trick. Some of these quick and easy products are really good, and do save time. The new processed stuff rarely save money and are not better for us or for the environment than the old ‘homemade’ way. This isn’t meant to encourage folks to ignore progress, but to consider what works best for you in your current situation. A little of each is moderation and may save you money, too. Just think about it. mcoburncppo@aol.com
