April 22, A Personal Earth Day 2024 814 words

Thought the official start of Earth Day was in 1970, my childhood was filled with earth friendly practices, encouraged by my parents. I recall many paper drives. My brothers were paperboys. They would offer to collect undelivered newspapers and collect the read papers from neighbors on junk day. Papers were stacked on the top of the trash can for easy collection. Newsprint was bundled with twine to be taken to a collection site such a local church or organization.
We lived near the start of the Edward Hines Parkway, a 24 mile park along the RiveRouge. When we visited the park in early spring, we would take several bags to pick up litter thrown from passing cars, over the winter months. I would find interesting items on these hunts. Bungee cords, cardboard boxes, Christmas lights and recyclable bottles and cans were collected. I had an interesting collection of bottle caps from these hunts. Old gardening gloves were worn to retrive the trash.
In the corner of our backyard, my mother had a mulch pile Where we deposited buckets of weeds, snall twigs and later grass from mowing. My job was to trim the grass on the edge of the lawn. I would place the cuttings in a bucket. The bucket was dunped onto the mulch pile. Dad would turn the pile to help it turn into compost.
When we were asked to collect the fallen green apples from the yard, the interest in the chore increased when my brothers started a game tossing apples each other. The game suddenly stopped when I was hit by a hard apple, I started to cry. My mother made the three boys pick up every apple before lunch.
There is an old Dutch tradition of sweeping the streets clean in the spring to prepare for summer street events. Often glass, nails and wire would be be swept to prevent the items and dirt from ending up in the storm drains. One summer storm, the drains couldn’t take the rain away. Our street flooded. We went out into the street in our underwear. My brothers floated boats, watched them move in the current. I had no boat, so I splashed them with the flood water. Mom called a halt to the fun. When called inside, I was told to take a bath.
“But Mom, I am clean!”
Mom gave me the mother look, a hard stare with a straight across mouth. Lips pressed tightly together. To this day, this is known as the look. My brothers and, daughter, nieces and nephews know and use it well.
My best recycling effort was to take all of our old comic books and have a sale in front of the house. Given permission from Craig, I sold thin comics for 2 cents and the thicker ones for a nickel. Business was brisk, with favorite comics grabbed fast. At the end I had about a dozen comics. Some had lost their covers, a few were a comic called Treasure chest, a Catholic comic. Taking a page from my mother’s garage sale. I bundled the lot and sold it for fifty cents. The neighborhood bully bought the lot. Later, his father, Duke, tried to return the offensive comics and get his money back. My dad listened and explained that his som had the ability to look over the comics before the purchase.
” There are no refunds or returns”
I wonder what Billy did with those comics? I bet he didn’t recycle them.
So when the Official Earth Day was establish in U.S. in 1970 and World Earth Day in 1990, I was familiar with what we could do to help maintain our world. This year Earth Day is focus on the world vs plastics. It is hoped to reducing the production of plastics 60 % by 2040. Encouraging the use of organic plastics that break down naturally in land fills will be encouraged. Looking for plastics that are labeled as organic could be selected over other plastics.
Those plastic groceries bags are collected by many stores that use them . Taking your own paper or cloth bags to the store will help. Many of those plastic bags end up in our lakes and oceans to be swallowed by marine wildlife. Trying to be mindful each day with our choices we make may seem small but in the long run, they can make a big difference for our Mother Earth.
As an old earth Day ad stated,
“Give a hoot, Don’t pollute.”

Being Mindful

I see tossed cans in the road, I pick it up.
A neighbor dog uses my yard as a latrine, I scoop it up and bury in the flowers.
Trash blowing down the street can be collected and deposited in my trash can.
If neighbors need a hand, I offer one.
We are all on this earth together.

carolaspot@aol.com April 22, 2024