The "World is my Oyster" generation

What were they thinking? We live on 5 wooded acres, which includes a
stream corridor. Last year, a subdivision with a bunch of new houses
got finished, with their yards backing up to the stream corridor. They
are across the stream from us. We had No Trespassing signs along the
property line, but someone, either a builder or realty company, stole
them. I look for solitude in the woods, so I rarely visit the area
that backs up to these houses, but on Saturday, I decided to take one
of our old trails on the side of the creek they live on. It seemed
awfully clear for a trail that had not been used for several years,
and widened into a mess of garbage. Somebody had created a massive
network of trails lined with stacks of newpapers and cardboard boxes.
They were bringing these large cartons from a business in another
town. We called the sheriff's department, and together, we figured out
which house the network was leading from. He paid them a visit, and
Sunday morning, I spent two hours getting all this stuff up, making 5
large piles. Some of the newpapers were from last spring! The ground
had been covered all summer, and the plants under it were dead. The
idiot who did this was out there this morning with a wheelbarrow,
picking up the piles. I picked the stuff up Sunday because I couldn't
stand the thought of my land suffocating under all that mess. I take
the woods very personally.
Meanwhile, it rained, and all the denuded trails are mud and standing
water. I wrote letters to all the homeowners on that stretch,
informing them of what happened, and that the woods were private
property. The trails can't grow over if people use them.
Boy are they gonna have bugs this summer, but they better not spray on
my land. It doesn't take much to impact a productive lowland. A little
bit of clearing, and you get a swamp.
How anybody could undertake such a misguided project on a neighbor's land is beyond me. Have people no respect for anyone but themselves? How about the earth?

Global Warming and us

I don't want to begin a scientific discussion, although if it goes that way, that's okay. Statistics can be interpreted to bolster any position, and vested interests on both sides can use the same data to support their point, no matter what it is. This is more about lifestyle.
I have felt like our society is on race towards a headlong crash, and has been for some time. I felt this way before I ever heard of global warming, but when it became a buzzword, it did not surprise me. Look around you. You wouldn't run a car inside your house, would you? Yet, every morning and every evening, lines of cars fill the highways, filling our "earth home" with exactly the fumes we would never dream of emitting in our own house. Add factories, power plants. Add clear cutting, pavement, pesticides, and on and on, and you can see that we are screwing up. It's only a matter of time before it catches up with us.
I've thought about this a lot. Some of what we use, we need. Most of it, we don't. The problem is, our economy is set up to exploit the earth. What is people stopped buying unnecessary things? What if we decided that smaller homes made more ecological sense? Suppose we carpooled, used public transportation, lived close to our jobs? Our economy would tank. So on one hand, there is this notion of "duh, yeah, we do need to make some changes," but those who are doing well in our economy have every reason for us not to change. In fact, the powers that be are scared of sensible change.
The earth is a living, changing being. Rivers change course, mountain ranges mellow over time, sand bars shift. Forests change from pines to hardwoods, and back again, in response to the forces of nature. Then, along comes man. Bam! Pavement here, creek there. No more change. Lawn here, forest gone. No more change. And on and on. So now we have global warming.
What needs to change is us, in a big way. We need to change our minds about what is acceptable, and even what is respectable. If SUVs became an embarassment instead of a status symbol for anybody who isn't off roading, could it save us? No, but it would be a step in the right direction.
What we need to change is our minds.

Of An Age...

You were a girl in the seventies if .......

You had that Fisher Price Doctor's Kit with a stethoscope that actually worked.

You owned a bicycle with a banana seat and a plastic basket with flowers on it.

You learned to skate with actual skates (not roller blades) that had metal wheels.

You thought Gopher from Love Boat was cute (admit it!)

You had nightmares after watching Fantasy Island.

You had rubber boots for rainy days and Moon boots for snowy days.

You owned a "Slip-n-Slide" , on which you injured yourself on a sprinkler head more than once.

You owned "Klick-Klacks" and smacked yourself in the face more than once (or constantly had bruises on your arms!)

You had either a "bowl cut" or "pixie", not to mention the "Dorothy Hamill". People sometimes thought you were a boy.

Your Holly Hobbie sleeping bag was your most prized possession.

You wore a poncho, gauchos, and knickers.

You begged Santa for the electronic game, Simon.

You had the Donnie and Marie dolls with those pink and purple satiny shredded outfits, or the sunshine family

You spent hours in your backyard on your metal swing set with the trapeze. The swing set tipped over at least once.

You had homemade ribbon barrettes in every imaginable color. (Oh yeah!)

You had a pair of Doctor Scholl's sandals (the ones with hard sole & the buckle). You also had a pair of salt-water sandals and clogs.

You wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder really bad; you wore that Little House on the Prairie-inspired plaid, ruffle shirt with the high neck in at least one school picture; and you despised Nellie Olson!

You wanted your first kiss to be at a roller rink!

Your hairstyle was described as having "wings" or "feathers" and you kept it "pretty" with the comb you kept in your back pocket.

When you walked, the "wings" flapped up and down, looked like you were gonna "take off"

You know who Strawberry Shortcake is, as well as her friends, Blueberry Muffin and Huckleberry Pie.

You carried a Muppets lunch box to school and it was metal, not plastic. With the thermos inside some were glass inside and broke the first time you dropped them.

You and your girlfriends would fight over which of the Dukes of Hazzard was your boyfriend.

YOU had Star Wars action figures, too!

It was a big event in your household each year when the "Wizard of Oz" would come on TV. Your mom would break out the popcorn and sleeping bags!

You often asked your Magic-8 ball the question: "Who will I marry. Shaun Cassidy, Leif Garrett, or David Cassidy?"

You completely wore out your Grease, Saturday Night Fever, and Fame soundtrack You tried to do lots of arts and crafts, like yarn and Popsicle-stick God's eyes, decoupage, or those weird potholders made on a plastic loom.

You made Shrinky-Dinks and put iron-on kittens on your t-shirts!

You used to tape record songs off the radio by holding your portable tape player up to the speaker.

You had subscriptions to Dynamite and Tiger Beat.

You learned everything you needed to know about girl issues from Judy Blume books. (Are you there God, It's me, Margaret.)

You thought Olivia Newton John's song "Physical" was about aerobics. (?? its not??)

You wore friendship pins on your tennis shoes, or shoelaces with heart or rainbow designs.

You wanted to be a Solid Gold dancer.

You drowned yourself in Love's Baby Soft - which was the first "real" perfume you ever owned.

You glopped your lips in Strawberry Roll-on lip-gloss till it almost dripped off.

~~~~~~~

Here's some of mine (chrisdd)

I glopped on Bonne Bell Seven Up Lip Smackers and was delighted when I got a big plastic candy cane full of the flavors, including strawberry and Dr. Pepper.

I put in stick pins in my cowl neck, boucle sweaters.

I owned a curling iron and used it regularly.

I loved painter's pants and we bought them cheap at Wieboldt's (here in Chicago).

One word-clogs.

Never had them but my girlfriend did and her feet hurt all the time.

Platform shoes (what were we thinking?)

Forget Leif Garret--Randolph Mantooth from Emergency.

I wanted a Camero or a black Trans Am--all the cute boys had black Trans Ams.

5-7-9 stores. Never shopped there. Ever.

Porkchops--when it meant something on your face. (I don't know if it was a southern IL thing, but that's what we called those horrible sideburns. My half-brother, who lived near Carbondale, had porkchops.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was reading through the list and sadly, my children have a lot of those things. Like the sad little metal swing set and the plastic pot holder weave thingie.

I got the picture of Randolph Mantooth from a great website called Stuck in the 70's. And I only wrote the things after (chrisdd). If the real author wants to show themselves, please do--we'd love to chat and laugh.

Pass the Bugles and the cheese roll. Who's next?