A Letter To My Grandma
Dear Grandma,
Today is day one of a year-long journey I have decided to embark on, and I need your help. I want to learn to live a life that is more sustainable and simple. Although I have made some pretty significant changes toward simplifying my life, I know I have a lot more to learn about living a sustainable or “green” lifestyle. I often think of you when I contemplate these two topics. I wonder, “How did Grandma store her leftovers without all of this disposable plastic stuff?” “Did Grandma toss all of her food scraps in the trash or did she compost?” “How did Grandma and Grandpa manage with one car?” “How did Grandma live without sippy cups for her kids?!” You probably did not have to struggle to answer these questions, because there was likely only one way of doing things. My hunch is that this “one way of doing things” was far more sustainable and simple than the way I do things now - albeit with a little more elbow grease involved! A few weeks ago the kids and I were driving to the YMCA and my mind wandered back to the issues of sustainability and simplicity. Feeling somewhat exasperated, I found myself wondering, “Did Grandma ever shove her kids in the car to drive to a big building to plug into a machine to watch TV and go for a run?!” And I had an epiphany as I drove in circles looking for a parking place - the answer was no because “MY GRANDMA WAS GREEN!”
Of course you did not drive to the local gym to workout, because you walked everywhere and worked in the garden and on the farm! And you did not throw much of anything away after only one use, because you determined quality by how many times something could be used over and over again! And you did not drive all over the place for a million separate activities and errands, because you only had one car (I also think this is part of the reason you did not need any sippy cups but I will save that musing for another day)! So, no, you weren’t actually green - but then again it all depends on how you define the word green. When I give it a second thought, I think you probably were green after all! I got extremely excited when I made this link because it means I have a “green” history. Although I like to be creative and original, I see no reason to reinvent the wheel if someone already knows how to do something well. And despite all of the great information available on living more sustainably and simply, I think your generation probably has a lot to teach my generation about these subjects. Who needs another book when you’ve got Grandma?! You may have used different words such as frugal or conservative, but it was all the same - you lived a simple, green life!
And this brings me back to why I wrote this letter in the first place. I want you to teach me about sustainability and simplicity. And I want to try to live what you teach me, recording my experiences along the way on my new website called www.mygrandmawasgreen.com. I thought it would be fun to spend time interviewing you in order to unearth the actions and attitudes from your generation that fit the criteria of sustainable and simple living. And so today is the first official day of my “Grandma Project” as I like to call it. However, before I take time to interview you, I am going to spend the next couple of weeks observing my own life in order to figure out what it is I think I will need to change to live more like you once did. I suspect I will have a million and one questions to ask you at the end of those 2 weeks! So let’s set a date for when I can interview you so you can begin to pass on all of your simple, “green” knowledge. I know you will have a lot to say, and I am ready to learn - so long as I do not have to give up homemade guacamole from imported avocados!
Love,
April
P.S. To all who have taken a moment to read my first post, I composed this letter with my dad’s mother in mind. I always referred to her as my “Grandma Pickies” because my Grandpa’s face was full of “pickies” that you could not miss when you gave him a kiss. My family and I lived with my Grandma and Grandpa Pickies for three and a half years when I was a young girl. At the time, they had a working farm with chickens and cows and a wonderful pond we used for swimming and ice skating, along with an amazing sledding hill. When we moved out of my grandparents’ house, we moved into a new home that was essentially right “next door”. Consequently, my Grandma and Grandpa Pickies loom large in my childhood memories. Unfortunately, my Grandma passed away on December 16, 2006. This letter was written in her memory. I miss you Grandma!
At my high school graduation in 1992 with my Grandma Pickies and her mom, my Great Grandma Saleski.
Great start April! We look forward to learning the “old” ways with you!
Love
Missy
Wow, what an undertaking. I look forward to seeing more. By the way, alot of scraps were either fed to the pigs (if on a farm) or to the dogs.& cats. I don’t remember my parents buying alot of pet food.
I am looking forward to reading your discoveries …and hopefully implementing them myself!
You know, you’re right, Grammy was green! My grandparents saved everything, their garage was amazing to see. I think the thing I remember the most and learned from grammy was recycling wrapping paper. My g-parents did not buy wrapping paper, oversized packages were wrapped in the funny pages from the daily paper and for others, they always carefully opened gifts with a knife and neatly folded and stored paper for later use. Gifts from the grandparents were always in newspaper or reused wrapping paper. It carried on to my dad and my brother and I to a point. My parents have a big bag of scrap christmas paper that is stuffers wrapping, all sorts of bits of paper from christmas pasts. And tho my g-parents have been both been gone for more than a decade now, every once in awhile you can pull out a piece of grammy paper, with bits of yellowed tape and a few old creases, ready for another package. I’m not quite as frugal as grammy was, gifts leaving the family get wrapped in fresh new paper but gifts staying in-family get reuse paper, they prefer it!
I also save any gift bags and tissue paper we get for gifts for reuse.
Thank you to everyone for your encouraging comments. My first official day of posting is coming to a close a little earlier than I planned as I am not feeling well - a hazard of having 3 little kiddos at home. However, I am feeling incredibly bolstered by all of the positive feedback and insightful ideas. I am going to take this one day at a time!
Wonderful post, April! I’m so excited with you as you ‘launch’ your project. I look forward to keeping updated through our energizing conversations as well as your website as well as learn how I can become more green through your discoveries…
Karen Ruis passed on your new web site to me. Looking forward to “re-connecting” via the internet! ; ) Tell Scott we said, “Hello!”
Way to go Woman!!! Honey, you always find new and interesting ways to push yourself and grow as a person. I can’t wait to see what you discover in the next year. As always, you share in your experiences, and that helps all of us to grow too! You are an asset to us all.
I’m proud of you, April! I’m looking forward to learning right along with you. The site looks great and easy to read! ;o) Love ya!
You are amazing!!! I can’t imagine such an undertaking with my (now) three kids! I look forward to sharing the next year of experiences with you. Ya know, this might get bigger than you imagine as the numbers of people checking your site continues to increase… By the way, the site looks great!
April,
Very nice! It will be a pleasure to learn from you (via Grandma) in the weeks ahead. I will be particularly interested in how “being green” is connected with a “shared life” (i.e. the experience of family/neighborhood/community).
What an awesome concept. I haven’t heard this idea from anyone else.
Dear April,
Congratulations on your web site and your fresh approach to revisiting the wisdom of our elders!
Now more than ever, we have a responsibility - indeed obligation - as living, breathing members of the human race to be good stewards here on Earth. The beauty of it is we already ARE empowered to make choices that champion our enviroment - we just need to ACT!
Since “getting back to the basics” in our present society is easier said than done, we NEED the wisdom of our elders, and that’s where our grandparents are invaluable resources - in fact, perhaps the ultimate “natural resource”.
Looking foward to gleaning from My Grandma Was Green!
Wow April! I was a bit surprised to get an e-mail from you about this but what an intriguing concept to learn more about. I know you’ve always been trying to live the simple life but it’s very impressive to see a mother of 3 young children being able to apply this to their own life and not get caught up in this worldly world we live in. Great to hear from you!
I am also looking forward to your blog and learning and sharing ideas. I also passed your blog on to Leah who sews for her kids including diaper covers, etc. Her blog is onpinsandneedle.wordpress.com.
Julie
April,
As we have established your grandma would have been my mother - and it is Monday and therefore wash day. Downstairs in he basement is a wringer washer - be careful not to get the clothes caught in the wringer. Then carry those clothes upstairs, in the wicker basket, and hang on the line, with the wooden clothespins. If it is raining - they just get a rainwater rinse - softens them. In winter clothes were hung in the basement if it was really cold - if not water evaporates in the winter also, the clothes are just a little stiff when you bring them into the house.
It is June - peas need picking - and the garden can always use a weeding - much to do today.
Barbara
My grandmother came from a farm background. She was borne in the 1880’s when horse and buggy was the only method of transportation. Shopping as a major undertaking that took the whole day. She was forced to plan ahead because she just didn’t have the time to pick up a few things for supper.
Gardens were a big part of her life because they canned just about everything they didn’t eat. Everyone had a garden and one of the family rituals when you came to visit was to see how the garden was doing. It was a thing of family pride and everyone took part in watering, hoeing and harvesting for the canning process.
I am told that It was a very comfortable feeling to know that you had plenty of canned food for the winter. Also they heated with wood and coal. The coal was delivered in the summer and stored in the basement coal bin. That was also another comfortable feeling to know that you would be warm all winter because the coal bin was full.
The toilet was an outhouse that was fairly well insulated. It also had a window and a vent pipe to releave the odors. THe seat was wooden. It was comfortable and very similar to the modern ones we use today. There was no electricity so you had to bring your own light at night.If you didn’t want to make the trip, a thunder jug was kept under the bed. It had a lid and was available for emergencies. Every few years the outhouse had to be moved.it was was a major project to dig a deep hole and move or build another one over it. The outhouse was a great conservation feature because it used no water and the waste eventually became a rich earth with a lot of organic nutritents.
Most people spent a lot more time at home because of necessity of doing so much for yourself to live comfortaably. In fact the week was divided up into actavities for each day. For example Monday-washing, Tuesday-ironing, Wednesday-gardening, Thursday-sewing, Friday-baking, Saturday-shopping, Sunday-Church and afterward a big family dinner. And if you were lucky, it was followed by an afternoon nap on a hammock in the shady part of the yard.
Dennis