Earth Day is Coming Soon

Istijlál (Majesty), 2 Jalal (Glory), 165 B.E. – Thursday, April 10, 2008 about 5:06 PM PDT

Earth Day is coming soon. There will be a lot of talk about planting trees and recycling among other related topics. The approach of Earth Day got me to thinking about my grandparents. We never thought much about recycling when I was growing up. However, my grandmother was good at recycling.

My grandmother recycled as much as she could. Instead of buying rags to clean the toilet, she used warn out underpants for that. My grandmother would not throw out the coffee grounds, instead she put them on her flowers. When grandpa cleaned out the chicken house, he used that for fertilizer. My grandmother's flowers were beautiful.

My grandfather planted trees, which were appropriate to the climate. He didn't plant a tree that took a lot of care to grow in Oklahoma. If he had lived in Nevada or some other desert he would have used desert landscaping. Of course, my grandparents were farmers before they moved into town. That may have had something to do with the care they took of the environment before it became fashionable.