I don’t remember if it was high school or college, but there was a short, dark haired teacher in front of the room, and he was talking about tomatoes. In the days when all tomatoes were vine ripened, when all were either homegrown or sold by farmers, the perfect tomato was red. It was round, and large. Unblemished. Perfect.
That was back when all tomatoes tasted good. Red meant ripe. Then came shipping. Tomatoes could be eaten far from the source, and out of the local season. Tomatoes were picked early, and gassed to make them red. They were bred for firmness, to withstand the rigors of shipping. And of course, all were round, unblemished. That, after all, was the epitome of a tomato. Unfortunately, taste was sacrificed. Now, when we want the perfect tomato, we grow it, or buy it from a farmer. We bring it in from the garden, still warm from the sun, and cut off any places the birds have pecked or wet leaves caused a little rot. And the taste? Perfect.
Look at a picture of the perfect lawn. Imagine the uniform green, evenly cut, covering the rolling landscape around a house. Looks peaceful, doesn’t it? Perhaps, one time, it was. Maybe in a wet climate, with not too much sun, keeping it short and lush. Ireland, or maybe Seattle. On that rare sunny day, that carpet of green must have been a sight to behold. Peaceful, inviting. Soft on bare feet.
Now we have lawns everywhere. They still make nice pictures, until you turn up the sound. Power mowers. Weed whackers, for the OCD perfect edges. Hedge trimmers. And those horrible leaf blowers, letting everyone within a quarter mile know that we are moving dead grass off the sidewalk, or cleaning the driveway of fallen pine needles. People spend hours stalking weeds with poisons. They put down fertilizers, install sprinklers, wash all those fertilizers into the world around them. Yikes!
So yes, it looks peaceful, only it isn’t. I suspect there is a whole generation who will never remember the hot stillness of a summer day. Heat will always be accompanied by a distant (or not so distant ) whine, and herbicides and pesticides pollute nearby waterways in the quest for a perfect lawn.
So can we have perfect lawns and a harmonious life? Sure, as long as the perfect lawn has dandelions decorating it. Honeysuckle creeps in at the edges. Dead leaves feritlize it. It is a safe place for children to lie on their backs and see shapes in the clouds, while pets frolic nearby, and it feels nice on bare feet.
Like the tomatoes, all that needs to change is our minds.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
Soft Rock with more talk
When I see these Soft Rock commercial telling me that "you get all those classic soft rock songs," "the music that made soft rock pure magic," and "hits you'll never forget."
Does any of my peers think that this is absurd to the point of hilarity?
I wondered if it ever ocurred to the producers of the classic collection that there are songs there that I want to forget?
Memories less than precious and more than few that I have chosen to let go. Songs that remind me of terrible mistakes and choices that I made when I was young. Of dreams pursued and left on the fringes of my youth.
I'll give you some examples:
Wildfire - the song about the horse. There was a girl in my German class who loved horses and just loved this song. (not a bad memory, really)
I've Been Waiting (for a girl like you)-that guy from Foreigner could sing. This song reminds of my first real love. As a young woman, I truly believed that no one but this person could ever love me; that belief is a train wreck waiting to happen.
Lost in Love - That song reminds me of my father's orange Pinto. That little car took me everywhere. From play practice to dinner theatres to Kenosha, WI for King Richard's Faire, when it was King Richard's faire. I've done a lot of interesting things that I'm not sure I want to tell my kids.
AND I put a little rainbow decal on the back window. I liked that pretty rainbow. I remember seeing it when I went to San Francisco. Had no idea what it meant until a couple of years ago--I live in Mayberry USA, after all.
When will I hold you again? - Barry Manilow. Used to call him Barely Man-enough, but I do appreciate him now. I'm not interested in going to his concerts but I'll be nice now. When I was a teenager and full of teen angst, I used to listen to that song over and over and over and over. After I talked to my friend Nance on the phone for about an hour and a half.
Let Her in - John Revolting, I mean, Travolta. I hate to say this, but I really liked him and his hair on Welcome Back, Kotter, until I liked Robert Heydges (Epstein).
I am a Woman in Love - Babs Streisand. My friend Nancy and I used to sing this song as Ethel Merman. Guess you had to be there.
Fabulous Forties-what about you?
Does any of my peers think that this is absurd to the point of hilarity?
I wondered if it ever ocurred to the producers of the classic collection that there are songs there that I want to forget?
Memories less than precious and more than few that I have chosen to let go. Songs that remind me of terrible mistakes and choices that I made when I was young. Of dreams pursued and left on the fringes of my youth.
I'll give you some examples:
Wildfire - the song about the horse. There was a girl in my German class who loved horses and just loved this song. (not a bad memory, really)
I've Been Waiting (for a girl like you)-that guy from Foreigner could sing. This song reminds of my first real love. As a young woman, I truly believed that no one but this person could ever love me; that belief is a train wreck waiting to happen.
Lost in Love - That song reminds me of my father's orange Pinto. That little car took me everywhere. From play practice to dinner theatres to Kenosha, WI for King Richard's Faire, when it was King Richard's faire. I've done a lot of interesting things that I'm not sure I want to tell my kids.
AND I put a little rainbow decal on the back window. I liked that pretty rainbow. I remember seeing it when I went to San Francisco. Had no idea what it meant until a couple of years ago--I live in Mayberry USA, after all.
When will I hold you again? - Barry Manilow. Used to call him Barely Man-enough, but I do appreciate him now. I'm not interested in going to his concerts but I'll be nice now. When I was a teenager and full of teen angst, I used to listen to that song over and over and over and over. After I talked to my friend Nance on the phone for about an hour and a half.
Let Her in - John Revolting, I mean, Travolta. I hate to say this, but I really liked him and his hair on Welcome Back, Kotter, until I liked Robert Heydges (Epstein).
I am a Woman in Love - Babs Streisand. My friend Nancy and I used to sing this song as Ethel Merman. Guess you had to be there.
Fabulous Forties-what about you?
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
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?
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?
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
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 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?
Thursday, January 25, 2007
celphones
Okay...Lydia's comment about people on celphones set me off, I guess:
This is one of my pet peeves, lately. I got cut off last week by the same sort of idiot that cut her off...a person holding a celphone pasted to one ear, wrist-driving with the other hand, zipping erratically through 6 lanes of traffic in a car the size of a Star-Kist can, which also sported a 'wing' on the rear deck. Invariably, if you don't hurry to get out of their way, you'll get the 'finger-wave' as they speed by you, radio blaring.
Now, I don't drive slow. I drive the speed limit, or above. Usually, with both hands on the wheel and my eyes scanning the windshield and both mirrors, as they taught us back in Driver's Ed, many years ago. I have a celphone...use it every day, at work. If it rings while I'm driving, I answer it and tell the caller I'll call them back when I get home, or to wherever I'm going. I DO listen to the radio, and I turn it down if it gets distracting in heavy traffic situations. I don't hang my foot out the side window, or slouch in the seat like I'm in my easy chair at home. I've never had an accident or a ticket for moving violation of any sort, in 40 years. Not bragging...but I'm piloting a 3,500 pound rolling mass of metal, rubber, and glass, and I DO pay attention while I drive.
Have you ever had occasions where you couldn't remember what happened in the last couple of blocks? (Not while you were inebriated, either!) Maybe you just settled into your comfort zone, and didn't pay a lot of attention. I have. Now, what if a kid had run out into your path in that couple of blocks? Could you have stopped? Not if you were on a celphone, I'll bet!
Talk about dropped calls! :(
Comments? Rebuttals? What's your take on this? Am I ranting again? lol
This is one of my pet peeves, lately. I got cut off last week by the same sort of idiot that cut her off...a person holding a celphone pasted to one ear, wrist-driving with the other hand, zipping erratically through 6 lanes of traffic in a car the size of a Star-Kist can, which also sported a 'wing' on the rear deck. Invariably, if you don't hurry to get out of their way, you'll get the 'finger-wave' as they speed by you, radio blaring.
Now, I don't drive slow. I drive the speed limit, or above. Usually, with both hands on the wheel and my eyes scanning the windshield and both mirrors, as they taught us back in Driver's Ed, many years ago. I have a celphone...use it every day, at work. If it rings while I'm driving, I answer it and tell the caller I'll call them back when I get home, or to wherever I'm going. I DO listen to the radio, and I turn it down if it gets distracting in heavy traffic situations. I don't hang my foot out the side window, or slouch in the seat like I'm in my easy chair at home. I've never had an accident or a ticket for moving violation of any sort, in 40 years. Not bragging...but I'm piloting a 3,500 pound rolling mass of metal, rubber, and glass, and I DO pay attention while I drive.
Have you ever had occasions where you couldn't remember what happened in the last couple of blocks? (Not while you were inebriated, either!) Maybe you just settled into your comfort zone, and didn't pay a lot of attention. I have. Now, what if a kid had run out into your path in that couple of blocks? Could you have stopped? Not if you were on a celphone, I'll bet!
Talk about dropped calls! :(
Comments? Rebuttals? What's your take on this? Am I ranting again? lol
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Welcome to the Think Tank!
Hello all...and welcome. This is your place to put in your two cents on the issues you may consider important. We all have different opinions, and we all have different information available on those issues, and we'd like to get your input on the topics we intend to discuss.
So, feel free to vent...to discuss...or just to post your own opinion. We'll go from there! And, please: don't harass or put anyone else down if their opinion is different from yours. Personal attacks will not be tolerated, and will be deleted.
Now, let's discuss some issues!
So, feel free to vent...to discuss...or just to post your own opinion. We'll go from there! And, please: don't harass or put anyone else down if their opinion is different from yours. Personal attacks will not be tolerated, and will be deleted.
Now, let's discuss some issues!
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