It is obvious what my kids play with - a mountain of plastic.  Actually, it is obvious what my kids think they want to play with because they do not play with most of the toys you see in the picture.  Right next to this mountain is a ”camper” my boys built out of blankets and chairs which they prefer.  This picture only represents one third of the toys in my house.  Toys seem to have a life of their own.  It is like they multiply when I am sleeping.

Unfortunately, most of the toys in my home will go the way of the landfill.  Plastic cracks and breaks and cannot be repaired.  Toys from my grandparents’ generation were most often made of metal and wood.  Metal and wood dent but rarely do they crack.  My grandparents did not buy plastic toys for their kids and they turned out just fine - some would argue better because they more readily engaged their imaginations. 

This is one of the primary reasons I decided to start My Grandma Was Green.  I realized if my grandparents could teach me a thing or two about living without plastic products - toys included - they could probably teach me about other issues related to sustainability and simplicity.

With that said, I know plastic has brought me a lot of benefits.  However, I want to reduce its presence in my life and use it when I really need it - like when I had emergency surgery a couple of years ago.  There was a lot of plastic involved and it may have literally saved my life.  That may sound a bit dramatic but I think it represents how difficult it is to sort through these issues.  There are no easy answers, but I think there are better answers.  I know I can learn a lot from my grandparents as I go looking for those answers.

What Would Grandma’s Kids Play With?  This is a picture of a toy made by a distant relative from my grandparents’ generation.  It is a wooden board with a series of metal hooks.  To play the game you had to try to toss the paper rings onto the hooks.  Each hook represented a different amount of points.  Apparently it occupied kids for hours.  My kids would probably enjoy it today.

When I was a little girl, we would go out to eat once a month.  Our favorite place to go was Red Lobster.  I would order the all you can eat popcorn shrimp with a Shirley Temple (Sprite and cherry syrup).  Even as I write this, I can picture my family shuffling to sit in a corner booth with a red and white checkered table cloth.  I can hear the squeaky noise my skin made as it rubbed against the seat.  I can practically taste the salty shrimp crunching in my mouth.

I still love to go out to eat.  It feels special because of my childhood experiences.  I go out at least once a week.  That sounds like a lot, but it is pretty accurate when I consider ordering in and a quick sandwich here and there.  My kids view going out to eat or ordering in as a very normal thing.  I remember when McDonalds came to town, whereas my kids consider fast food signage a part of the landscape.  I like to think of going out to eat as entertainment, but it is actually a pretty run of the mill activity.

I can probably say the same of movies.  Going to a movie theater alone with my husband feels like a treat because our kids are not clamoring all over us, but watching movies is another very normal activity.  We regularly rent movies online.  We also rent them from the library.  I like to pretend we are going to library for books but my kids race home to watch the videos, not to read.  I am working on that one!

Speaking of reading, I think it used to be its own form of entertainment.  My kids have more books than I can count.  I read somewhere that Abraham Lincoln owned only a few books growing up. He read each one so many times he had them memorized.

I know I have a lot more leisure time than my grandparents did.  My life seems to be focused on maximizing my time for leisure, relaxation and entertainment.  Consequently, a lot of acitivites my grandparents would have labeled as entertainment feel like a normal part of my routine.  We do other things as a family besides eating out and watching movies but I am hard pressed to think of anything that truly feels like entertainment they way I remember Red Lobster as a kid.

I am really curious about how my grandparents would have defined entertainment.  What did they do as a family?  Did my grandma spend time with friends?  Did my grandpa meet up with the guys?  Did my grandma and grandpa go on date nights?  What Would Grandma Do For Fun?

I came up with the title “My Grandma Was Green” because it seemed catchier than “My Grandparents Were Green.”  Who is Grandma?  “Grandma” represents each of my grandparents as well as others of their generation.  It also represents your grandparents as you share your stories.

Both sets of my grandparents were born around 1930 covering the years 1929, 1930 and 1931.  My paternal grandmother passed away two years ago.  My paternal grandfather and my maternal grandparents are still surviving.  My husband’s maternal grandparents were both born in 1925 and are alive as well.  His paternal grandparents were born in 1917 and 1919.  Unfortunately, his paternal grandmother passed away in May just one week shy of her 90th birthday.  His paternal grandfather also passed away a few years prior. 

I am particularly interested in examining stories from the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s.  These years covered my grandparents’ younger days as well as when they married and started their own families.  Each of these three decades encompasses a significant historical event.  The 1930’s entailed the Great Depression.  The 1940’s were punctuated by World War II.  The 1950’s is when many of the modern conveniences I now take for granted first made their appearance.

Interviewing my surviving grandparents and others of their generation is a key part of this project.  I will use excerpts of my interviews as well as other stories people share to guide me as I try to live like “Grandma.”  I will post my interview questions for others to view and use.  Each person I interview will become an official member of my “panel of experts.”  If you have a story you want to share, please email me at april@mygrandmawasgreen.com.