Going Green: The New Name for a Very Old Life Style

I am almost 60-years-old and I have been living the "green" life style my entire life because that is the way I was raised and that is the way I raised my two children. My Mom was into nutrition way back in the 1930s because she used to cook for very wealthy and prominent families in our area before she married my father. She learned the importance of vegetables and fruits as well as lean meats versus the fattier cuts. If we had deserts, they were home-baked recipes "from scratch" that never included mixes. I was never given a lot of soda because it is not good for the teeth, and to this day, I do not drink it very often.

I am of Polish decent; both sets of grandparents were born in Poland just prior to WWII, and they came to the United States as the Germany army was entering Poland. My parents were born here, and because they were not wealthy, they knew how to make things stretch. And that is where recycling came into the picture. Of course, it was not known as recycling back then, but everything was used to its fullest.

My parents used to reuse everything because they could not understand throwing out something that could be used over again. Metal cans were used for all sorts of things, from saving pennies to separating nails, and were never discarded until they rusted through. Then they went to the scrap yard. Old jars with sound lids were sterilized and saved for canning the excess in the garden and storing the homemade jams made from the local fruit farms in the area. My mom used wax to seal the top to prevent bacteria growth before using the lid. We ate that wonderful produce and fruit all winter long.

Our garbage used to be collected separately from the rubbish and went to the pig farm that used to be just down the road from where I live now. The garbage, the food we discarded, was collected once a week, and my grandmother used to clean the garbage can after it was taken to make sure no bacteria ever developed in excess to do us harm. We were separating the food waste from the other wast long before composting became popular. For the garden, my grandmother used to get the manure from the local dairy farms and put it in her garden every year. She never used commercial fertilizers, and we raised the freshest and most delicious produce we could grow.

One Polish family that my parents knew very well had vast gardens where they grew produce for the local markets in our area. They are still growing in the same manner as when my parents were young, using only cow manure for fertilizer. As a result, the land they own is considered to be the richest land in nutrient and mineral content the world, according the the USDA. Manure puts these back into the soil, while commercial fertilizers deplete them. They sell the produce from their farm store and to just a few local markets that still buy as they did decades ago.

I often dreamed about living way out here near the old pig farm--3 miles from the center of town--when I was little because it was such a vast country setting. Now houses are all over the once farm land, but the the properties are rich from the decades of pastures that fed the milking cows that gave the milk I drank as a child. Some of those farms still exist close to my home, and they have formed a corporation of milkers called "Our Family Farms" that produces the same milk as when I was young. Growth hormones and other synthetic chemicals were never used and it is still the best tasting milk I have ever had. It sells only in Western Massachusetts and Southern Vermont and I know folks that come from Connecticut to purchase it.

I live in Western Massachusetts in what is known as the Connecticut River Valley, that for centuries has very mineral-rich soils, but in the past decades, as more and more of the farms began using commercial fertilizers, the soil has lost most of its richness. Instead of going back to the "old ways" of using animal manures, and because the cost of commercial fertilizers is on the rise, these farms are selling their pristine land to developers that scrape off the lush soil, resell it, and cover over the land with asphalt for big box stores.

"Going Green" is not something new, and I often think that it is about time that the rest of the population has caught up with me. Every time I see an add for how I can save money by using those energy efficient light bulbs, I stop to see all those bulbs I have had for the past twenty years, and the only reason I did replace some of them is because the newer ones are more efficient and save more electricity than those old ones. I was always taught to turn off the light when I left the room, turn off the water while I brushed my teeth, and recycle the plastic containers I use for other things. (I have a very difficult time throwing the plastic yogurt containers that have great sealing lids into the recycle. I know sometime down the road I will need one or two for something or other!) I have a compost pile that I use for the flower gardens--I see no reason to have a vegetable garden because I live 10 minutes away from several local farm stands and would rather support their efforts so the tradition of a the family farm will continue.

Before I was born, my grandparents owned a self-supporting farm where they used all the know-how of their parent farmers in Poland. Not much went to wast. My grandmother and grandfather used to make braided rugs from the old clothing that was too torn and tattered to wear but still had the sturdiness to last for years. Today I would need to buy the strips to braid and sew together but they would not have the strength and durability to hold up as long as those my grandparents made. Clothes today are made from synthetics and cottons that do not have the same durability. She used to crochet things to cover the "sitting room" furniture to protect from wear, and my grandfather used to make chairs out of the trees that he cut down. I still have a child's rocker that was made for my mother. It will hopefully stay in the family after I am gone.

I remember, during summer vacations, going from house to house collecting the old newspapers so they could be recycled by the local scrap yard that sold them to the paper mill in the next town. We got something like $.06 a pound, It was a way we used to make some extra money as kids so we could go to the movies or buy some of that forbidden candy. You would be surprised how many pounds of paper four kids could collect in one week! In the same way we collected metal from the neighbors as well.

My family never smoked cigarettes, so I never smoked either. In high school I remember my date taking me home when I refused to "light up" with him. Peer pressure meant nothing to me as far as smoking cigarettes. When I started dating my husband, I was the only one in our group of 10 couples that did not smoke. Now there is only one person of those thirty that still smokes. Some have died from the effects of those cigarettes. I feel fortunate to have such an upbringing.

When my husband was in college during the early 1070s, I audited some environmental courses that were being offered at the University of Massachusetts. I remember those courses well and learned how the impending changes in the atmosphere of global warming would some day become a threat to out entire civilization. Today I look back at all those politicians that scoffed at the idea, only to watch as they now humbly admit the truth. I just wish the ways I thought the healthiest for me and the planet could have caught on sooner, but I never changed my perspective.

I am very happy that the population is returning to the "Old Ways" of returning to reusing, making new things out of old things and making things from materials that will breakdown back into the minerals that support life. My whole life I have been a firm advocate of recycling, reclaiming, and using less rather than more, and now I am thrilled to finally see the return to the norm of old, in my lifetime. I just hope it is not too late for the planet.