I like the life my grandparents lived; I think they were healthier and good stewards of the earth.
They didn’t watch much TV and read only local newspapers. Most of the food in their fridge and cupboards didn’t have ingredients. They had only one of everything; TV, fridge, automobile, residence. They ate pears and cherries off of their own trees. They had stress and struggle, and times were tough, as tough as they had been before and as tough as they are now. They had antacids, aspirin, cough syrup. We grandkids had to eat the turnip and squash, but there were fruit flavoured jellies and pineapple-orange
juice as well. Their clothes smelled like clothes; cotton, linen, wool, and starch, and shoe polish. And their clothes were mended, re-sized, passed on, and familiar. They treated their sons like children when they were young, and like men not long after that. Too early, perhaps.
My grandfather had a push lawn mower and a pocket watch he wound each night.
When we moved into our house, there was a push mower from my Dad waiting in the garage.
.... further to my Sunday rant about caring for our earth, in the September issue of Prevention Magazine there is an article noting a connection between the bacteria found in healthy soil and increased brain function. Researchers at the University of Bristol found mice who had inhaled the bacteria were better problem solvers. Perhaps they can figure a way to get a better job! A couple of pages earlier in the same issue there's an unpleasant prediction from the Harvard School of Public Health, warning to expect a 55% increase in pollen over the next fifty years, due to global warming. Interestingly, I'd also heard the increase in pollen is also the result of city planning. Apparently, many cities have decided to limit their planting to only one gender of trees, to eliminate cross-pollination which, naturally, results in messy fruitfulness.
