Meet the original 'generation green'

Home sweet home after our week's vacation in Seattle. One of the people we visited was my almost 91-year-old grandmother. Born in 1918, I often wonder what she thinks of the changes that have come about in her lifetime. Sliced bread and all sorts of modern convenience. Is it progress or not? In old pictures, I see her as a child wearing black leather lace-up boots and hand-embroidered dresses. Far contrast from the factory-produced jeans and shoes my kids wear.

The email we received from EnviroMom reader Maggie about 'generation green' could not have been more timely:

enviromoms - I make an effort to be green.  I learn more all the time from your blog, the internet, books, friends...  Turns out, I really didn't need to go all that far.  A recent visit to my grandmothers' retirement community is all it really takes to see it is that it is only recently we have forgotten how to conserve.  She is 83.  I spent only 5 hours with her today.  In that short time I witnessed the following green habits (both hers and her friends):

• buy local produce
• eat more produce than meat
• buy food basics and actually COOK
• keep furniture for more than 20 years
• keep clothing for more than 4 years
• use a handkerchief
• carpool
• do errands all at once
• turn off lights when you leave the room
• keep leftovers AND eat them
• reuse bags
• reuse paper napkins or use cloth
• hair does not need to be washed every day
• share magazines with friends
• in place of TV, play bridge
• bring a spoon (not plastic) from home to accompany your snack, it fits in a purse

She has been living her life this way for decades.  Maybe you have already written about this generation or about how it is only recently that our lives have changed to be so wasteful.  If not, consider a visit to a retirement community.  It opened my eyes a great deal.

Thank you Maggie for sharing your grandma's inspiring green ways. There's so much we can learn from our elders. I'd guess all of us have wisdom gained from our own grandmas to share. However, I hope you'll excuse me now, as it's time for lunch, and I need to go slice some bread.