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7 green things our grandparents did: Green wisdom
7 green things our grandparents did
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cheap north face
Nov 06 2012 at 1:28 PM
I'm not sure exactly why but this blog is loading incredibly slow for me. Is anyone else having this problem or is it a issue on my end? I'll check back later and see if the problem still exists.
hayduke2000
Aug 16 2012 at 11:21 AM
These are not just things our grandparents and great-grandparents did in the past. This is a way of life, simple, sufficient, satsifying. This is the way my wife and I have lived all our lives.
Lolsen
Nov 27 2011 at 7:41 PM
My husband and I keep saying it is time to get back to the basics. Farming.. Raising our own food. Then we will know exactly where it is from and that its free of chemicals. I feel my grandparents were so blessed to live when they did. We have gotten so far away from the basics. Good hard work. Not sitting in front of a computer afraid to get our hands dirty. That's what is wrong with the younger generation. Use the land like it was meant to be used.
Vicki
Jan 11 2011 at 9:32 AM
With the economic situation, people need to learn to go back to basics. My grandparents lived and survived in Depression Era Nebraska. They were Amish who left the community to go on their own. We ate home cooked fresh garden produce, ate chickens from the backyard coop and drank FRESH RAW MILK from the State Farm that was located south of our community for dairy products. No government control on food.
People today, have totally lost touch with reality, and know nothing. I personally have
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tried to teach home making skills to welfare mother and families, and I hate to say it, but these families and mothers do not have the mentality to even boil water, let alone, do meals, or even keep house. Too much drugs, alcohol, and the push of fast food and the poisons that are in them don't help. These women I tried to teach were drug fueled nut cases who didn't want to do anything else but buy more drugs and run to the bar.
I do not have a answer to the social problems today, I have a therory, but nothing else.
We also have too much government involved controlling everything. The local governments in communities prevent you from hanging your laundry out, the federal government want to control that you cannot garden in your own back yard for your own food because of food safety issues that were brought on by the mega farm corporations and because people are losing touch with their lives and the government thinks that it has to hold your hand to live your life and be told what to eat and how to eat it.
People need to wake up and start seeking out elders to learn old ways, like canning food, cooking skills, gardening skills, homemaking skills. There are people in communities who teach this. Please, seek out these pools of knowledge and learn what they have lived.
Life was so good when I was a kid, and I was so very thankful for my grandparents who taught me skills that I practice today.
Lydia T
May 16 2012 at 9:24 PM
I like and fully agree with you. I am 53yrs. old and I raised my 4 sons on a very small income. They never went hungry. Had warm clothes and a roof over their heads. I was a stay at home mom. I was very lucky to be able to be one. Things were tight but, we were happy. I made a 20 dollar bill last 2 weeks for gro. 4 sons eat alot and a husband to fed. I hung my clothes out. Made most of my food from scratch. We had alot of beans, potatoes and cornbread. We planted a garden. Had milk goats and chickens.
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It was hard work but, my sons all know how to live and make gardens and etc. We need to get back to the basic way of living. Mothers need to learn how to care for their children like they use to. Not saying dads don't make good moms. They do one of mine has to be mr. mom.
Gabrielle
Mar 24 2012 at 9:38 AM
Amen to your thoughts! I was raised in Europe and did the same things! Now in my 60's and in a new country (America), I went back to the old ways. I grow my own food, get watercress at the creek, dandelion in the fields and water at the spring. I can, dry and preserve my veggies, let a neighbor hunt on the land I own in exchange for meat (deer) and I am healthier and happier than a lot of people!
Rogue Epidemiologist
Jan 11 2011 at 5:49 PM
In the good ol' days, raw milk was widely known cause infant sickness and death. It wasn't until the early 20th Century that pasteurization of milk had caught on. As a result, fewer babies caught things like undulant fever (brucellosis) and tuberculosis.
Sure the folks milk cows and had fresh dairy on farms, but a lot of them cooked the milk on the stove first to prevent sickness.
Farmboy
Aug 02 2012 at 10:02 PM
Youre right about the government since I have been doing research in Psychology and law, you would not believe the laws and how they make it just for lawyers big business and government. I am converting my farm back to the old days everything done here just like the indians and look what the government did to them. To bad the people can not get together anymore and get the government under control.
greenMars
Jan 13 2011 at 1:24 PM
During the late 1800's and early 1900"s the population in the United States exploded. The nation had to increase food production to keep up with the demand for food, including milk to feed the growing number of infants and children, especially those of immigrant families. Numerous dairies popped up around the urban centers, and many of them were run by unscrupulous business people whose main concern was profit, not product safety. Living conditions for the dairy cows and milking conditions were often
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disgusting and the milk was often tainted because of that. Workers were untrained and unwashed, and sick workers frequently handled the cows and milk. To make matters worse, the owners and sellers would sometimes water down the milk and add flour, plaster, or powdered chalk to make the watered milk look thicker and whiter. Hundreds of thousands of people (mostly babies, small children and infirm/elderly) were sickened and many died. Epidemiologists eventually determined the cause and the government eventually cracked down on poorly, even criminally, run commercial dairies. Honest dairy producers were also forced to comply with government regulations, and now we have the current situation, where it is illegal to sell raw milk in most areas. Raw milk, when harvested in clean conditions from healthy cows does not pose a threat. As another commenter posted, my family also grew up drinking raw milk, from our own cows, and we were just fine. As with any other food product, know where your food is coming from! Be responsible consumers and have more control over what you purchase, raise or make for your family to eat.
Donna
Jan 12 2011 at 2:00 PM
Sounds like a big old milk bucket of government (or possibly Dairygold) rhetoric right there. My family has drank raw milk from our milk cow for year without getting sick. And we never boil it. We just use clean milking practices. I suppose you think that millions of people die every year from taking vitamins and eating whole foods and organic vegetables too unless they cook them till there are no nutrients left in them.
The only reason the govt. started monitoring milk production was so that they
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could get their cut. As always, they can't stand it when someone is making a living and they aren't getting a portion of the money to line their own pockets. It's all about govt. greed, power and oppression of the people. and has noting to do with babies dying. the govt. could care less about babies or anyone else dying as long as they get their cut.
greenMars
Jan 15 2011 at 7:40 PM
Guess what? There were industry lobbiests back then when they were having problems with tainted milk. Not just large dairy, either- whiskey brewing firms also had there fingers in the cookie jar. Many whiskey breweries had "factory farms" next door, where they kept crowded, poorly tended dairy herds. The cows were usually fed the waste mash fron the brewery. The mash sludge contained alot of water, but little nutrition, so the cows produced large quantities of milk, but it was of poor quality.
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Plus the conditions, and the workers themselves, were unclean. Even after it was discovered that this was the cause of sickness outbreaks, the lobbiests fought for things to stay as they were. So that the industries wouldn't lose money. Never mind that thousands were sickened and died because of it. Eventually activist groups won out; health and cleanliness regualtions were put into place, the slop dairies were for the most part shut down, and pasteurization became the norm. Pasteurization was initially instituted to make UNSAFE, CONTAMINATED milk safe to drink. The government required the unsanitary factory dairies to begin pasteurizing their tainted milk before they were required to start cleaning up their facilities or take better care of the cows. The lobbiests demanded that ALL dairies comply with certification and pasteurization, even well-run facilities that never had contamination problems. Because they were competion...
Cecile
Jan 11 2011 at 9:55 AM
Amen to your entire comment. I am with you 100%.. People in general have lost the basic skills of home making. But in all fairness to the 30 something generation, the mothers aren't able to be stay-home moms because they must go out and earn a living. the cost of living has risen exponentislly and these gals must go to work in order to affordthe most basic things: food, clothing, health care, and education for their children. These governmenbts havecheated this generation out of good solid education.
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My kids went to public school. Try sending a kid to Public school these days. you hope the kid will come home in one piece. I agree that waste runs rampant these days, and it is necessary to re-educate these young people onhow to recycle and use their resources wisely.
Angela
Jan 12 2011 at 12:19 PM
My Grandma told me that before the Great Depression nobody ate the chicken wings!!! It was considered waste, as well as the liver and giblets all of it was thrown away. So.... if it weren't for the Great Depression who knows how long we would have had to wait to have wings with our football!!! Lol
Guest
Jun 01 2012 at 8:24 PM
Not true. In Europe, and no doubt in many parts of the US as well, where people understood the value of what they had, chicken wings and the giblets were cooked in different ways. Some of the recipes for chicken livers are very old. But the wealthy who did not cook their own food until the Depression hit, would not know of this unless they had connections to the old country or farm friends.
Terri
Jan 11 2011 at 6:34 AM
I save money, the environment, and the animals by eating a plant-based diet. The animals appreciate not being killed. It takes many more resources such as water and oil to produce meat than plants, and animal agriculture produces very high levels of greenhouse gases. With meat there are also issues of soil erosion, run-off of ecoli infected water, more clear-cutting for raising animals and the grain they eat (think destruction of Amazon rain forest), killing of millions of animals farmers consider
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pests, the round-up of horses in the West so ranchers can use the grazing land, etc.
wyatt
Jan 11 2011 at 9:04 AM
Thank goodness we all don't have your uneducated, biased opinion of vegetarianism. I f all of us became vegetarians, there would be no place for animals to live. I'm sure they would appreciate being quickly killed rather than starving. Also, the carbon footprint from that lifestyle would be huge, not to mention the amount of insecticides and herbicides sprayed. Also, the GMO impact from companies like Monsanto would be so far reaching, our planet would be ruined. Grandma and grandpa lived in
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a different time. I agree we could do MUCh better than we are, by a vegetarian lifestyle is not the answer.
Guest
Nov 28 2011 at 7:37 PM
If we live by Permaculture principles, or Masanobu Fukuoka principles we would NEVER have any need for insecticides or herbicides. In fact, both of those would destroy the beautiful ecosystems we would be trying to produce. And nobody in their right mind would ever touch a Monsanto seed or other product.
It is so easy being vegetarian or vegan for anyone with a quarter acre of land.
Eric Hoberg
Jan 11 2011 at 7:31 AM
The article is suppose to be about how they ate years ago and you instantly make it into your personal preference and a jab at killing poor bambi. My grandparents ate a lot of meat; chicken and pork were main stays.
Donna Pereira
Jan 11 2011 at 8:55 AM
Years ago, folks raised their own meat, chickens, cows and pigs. Often, they would kill a chicken for a Sunday dinner, butcher a hog once a year and slaughter a cow, every so many years. However, these were big events planned over a year's time. Grandma and Grandpa were much more respectful of life. Sometimes their was meat on the table, the portions were smaller. Many times there was vegetables and cornbread. I think the difference is, we ate meat everyday and take it for granted...they ate it
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when they had it, in smaller portions and placed value on the life that was given up for their consumption. They were close to their food supply.
Donna Pereira
Jan 11 2011 at 8:54 AM
Years ago, folks raised their own meat, chickens, cows and pigs. Often, they would kill a chicken for a Sunday dinner, butcher a hog once a year and slaughter a cow, every so many years. However, these were big events planned over a year's time. Grandma and Grandpa were much more respectful of life. Sometimes their was meat on the table, the portions were smaller. Many times there was vegetables and cornbread. I think the difference is, we ate meat everyday and take it for granted...they ate it
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when they had it, in smaller portions and placed value on the life that was given up for their consumption. They were close to their food supply.
C Yates
Aug 19 2010 at 9:31 AM
I love this. Use it up and wear it out. It is something we need to remember and make a generational 'thing' again.
At DataXstream we are looking for stories of what people are doing today, whether it is living out lessons from their grandparents or taking on new projects. Please come tell us about it at:
http://dataxstream.com/gogreen/
Lovina
Aug 18 2010 at 4:19 PM
just like he was raised in the latter 1800's...out-house, coal-oil lamps,wood cook-stove,.......We lived out in the Texas hill country & went to a very small town on a Saturday ;bout once a month, where we traded eggs & butter for things we couldn't grow our-selves...mostly lived off the land...I loved living that way & still use kerosens lamps & have a garden & fruit orchard...I even still have an old Ice-box...one that holds a 50 lb. block of ice & a summer kitchen with
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a wood cook-stove....I still do all the things in the above comments....I'm 65 now & have taught my kids & Gr.kids, to try to live off the land...
Teresa Westling
Aug 18 2010 at 2:21 PM
I am a city kid but loved going to my grandparents home in Oklahoma there they had little creeks to play in horses to ride and of course watching my grandma getting ready to make ice cream this wasn't done with any electricity but by a hand cranked gismo which made the best icecream ever.Oh those sweet time of G2rL3summer.
Jo
Aug 18 2010 at 1:06 PM
We can still do these things. Nothing better than sheets and pillowcases hung in the sun to dry. Makes clothes last longer when they air dried too.
My mother told me about the early 50s when she had five children. No yard sales. The neighbors had one Saturday a month when they put "used" clothes and toys on their back porches. The mothers went from house to house choosing what they wanted for their own children.
Mother grew up in Upper New York during the depression. Her father built their house
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out of a hot dog stand! He purchased the land to build a house and the depression hit. So they "made do". In the end the hot dog stand became the ktichen and he added on rooms as it became possible.
With todays building codes we can't go that far...but we CAN do what we can!
golden girl
Aug 18 2010 at 10:39 AM
yes, I also played red light, jacks, hide/seek, roller skating w/clamp on skates,,wde had a good time and didn't know we were poor..no TV only a radio.
carolyn
Aug 18 2010 at 10:19 AM
Iwould spend every summer at my grandmothers house where she had chickens and some ducks. She would sell her eggs and ocasionaly a chicken or two. It was my job to pluck the chickens after they were dipped in boilking water for a couple of seconds and then collect the feathers for other sewing projects.She had apple trees and made the best apple pies using the chicken fat for the pie crust, they were the best ever.
lisa
Nov 27 2011 at 7:44 PM
Thanks for the tip about the chicken fat in apple pie! Been saving it and this sounds great :)
nanga
Aug 18 2010 at 6:27 AM
If all the "green" activists would take a look at some of the older people these days, they would see how they pale in comparison to these folks. My grandma did every thing in this article. She has a healthy amount of money, but chose to live very frugally. Until she was in her 90's she had a huge garden and fruit trees; summers were the best because of all the fresh fruit and vegetables; what she didn't share, exchange with neighbors or eat; she preserved for later. She uses and reuses everything;
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no store bought plastic containers for her; she also bought very little paper as she reuses what is sent to her in the mail. AS children we played outdoors, cards and games our parents had played; she still has the toys that were around from 50 years ago and new generations continue to enjoy them. She bought very little furniture; almost everything in her house was purchase either when she was first married or when she needed them for her children. Her clothing she has used for many years and she doesn't want anything new. We all enjoyed many hours of card games and conversation at grandma's. In today's greedy, selfish, throw away society most people would likely pity her and think she was poor, but in reality, she is very rich; how many of us can say we are happy with what we have and not want for more? As I say again; all those touting being green and "organic" need to take a look back to see those that have lived it all their lives and realize that their efforts are dim in perspective.
Barb
Aug 18 2010 at 8:39 PM
people in this society, are very greedy, selfish, and who cares attitude. if you really are happy, why do you always need more?? neighbors who don't even talk or even wave at each other.. whats up with that? do you think you are so much better.. if it doesn't work right, throw it out, don't bother to try and fix it, or recycle, pollute more of the earth. my parents and grandparents always recycled, no matter what it was. baking, canning, was a natural thing, nothing went to waste. even back
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in my younger days, what was plastic bags for groceries, there was no such thing. walking to school 1 1/2 miles one way, was no big deal. i still try to recycle what i can, but our society makes it harder, they say they have no place/or the money to recycle.. we can put a man on the moon, but can not find a better way to recycle everything we use for this day and age.
Kimberly
Aug 18 2010 at 10:52 AM
How blessed we are to have such a heritage! My parents even packed our food for our road trips, no fast food stops, just roadside picnic tables. What joy! I raised my children like that, but it got lost in translation on my grandchildren. My Grandkids go ballistic when they see the Golden Arches. They don't want what's in the bag. No eye contact or conversation because they are making eye contact with something electronic and talking to IT... sigh.
Thanks for sharing Nanga, and all the others here
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too. It's really good reading.
Elizabeth Adams
Aug 17 2010 at 11:21 PM
We rarely went to the doctor. If you went it was cause Grandma and Grandpa's stuff didn't work. Sore throat - horehound candy; chest cold - mustard plaster (the adults got Jim Beam); headache - massage and ice cubes; sprained ankle - hot pepper plaster.
Grandpa had the herb garden, Grandma had the flowers. She never bought a gift for anyone - for women it was flowers, for men it was spearmint or horehound candy; for kids it was bean bags.
We rolled up the shiny tinfoil gum wrappers into tiny balls
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to save for the war effort. I always used to wonder if the soldiers wouldn't rather have the gum. Same thing with white sheets that were old and soft - they got torn into strips and made into bandages.
Coffee grounds got added to the next day - not brand new ones every time you made coffee.
Tons of memories like that - and my family was wealthy - we just didn't know it cause Grandpa had sense about money.
Cassie Mojica
Aug 17 2010 at 9:02 PM
My Grandparents had a victory garden of sorts in their long slim back yard. They lived in a townhouse and the back yard was as wide as the house and long and slim. My Grandma planted all sorts of finds along the back fences on either side of the house. As well as the occasional buy she would as for cuttings from friends and transplants from neighbors. She had such diversity as Poppy plants, tomatoes, and Night Blooming Roses.
I can remember as a kid thinking it was magic when the flowers bloomed
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at night with just a gentle touch and a kiss. The adults would sit outside and drink cool drinks and talk. We sometimes even got to play "21" and win nickels. The big event was watching the night bloomers and the porch chairs all got brought to the yard to watch them magically open.
SMoore
Jul 18 2010 at 11:21 AM
I remember spending time at my Great Grand Parents (Pa and Grannie). They did everyone of these things. It was a very peaceful time as I remember. I just asked my husband to help me add a clothes line. Do you remember how nice clean fresh linen smelled from outside? Thanks for reminding me!
Barb
Aug 18 2010 at 9:35 PM
chores were; total house cleaning, with mop and bucket, "mop" old towel" or on hands and knees; dishes always done by hand, (no dishwasher in our house), plants watered, dusting whether it was needed or not. unless it was pouring out, you were out of the house. you had to make up games, or play the classics, jump rope, kick the can, inny i over, ball games, if you were allowed to go down to the neighbors you had to walk, which was at least 1/4 to 1/2 mile away. no big deal. you ate your meals
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together at the table. no sitting in front of the tv. no going to the doctor for a cold or cuts. home remedies, lots of "VICKS" and home made bandaids done the trick, we survived. i'm only in my mid 50"s.. during school you walked to school, 1 1/2 miles one way. kids don't even want to walk down the block now. but, depending on where you live, it may not be safe. our kids now, need to get away from the tv's, game boxes, and get out side to do whatever, walk, ride a bike, go to a playground, our older kids, need a safe place to go to get excerise also, to where it doesn't cost them anything..
LINDA HANNON
Jun 28 2010 at 10:10 AM
PEOPLE ATE DINNER AT HOME AND CONNECTED ,NOT AT FAST FOOD JOINTS ,THATS WHY OUR CHILDREN ARE OVERWEIGHT !!!! THEY HAD BACK YARD SWINGS AND PLAYED JUMP ROPE ,REMEMBER HOP SCOTCH ,CHINESE JUMP ROPE ?????
Lydia
May 16 2012 at 10:06 PM
We as parents or grandparents have allowed this to happen to our children. It is easier to let them play video games etc. Have the boob tube as some are calling it to babysit for us. Our parents made us go out to play get out from under their feet so to speak. We also would rather do the chores ourselves so we don't have to let our poor littles ones have to do what we had to do when we were little. Our older children that are in their twenties don't even know how to cook turn on a wash machine, sweep
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a floor. I could go on and on. We have to stop some where. Our children and grandchildren are all going to not know nothing. Know wonder they think they have to rely on the government. Not that the government is making this any easier. They even have tied our hands to some extent. God help us all. What is America coming to.
Lyn
Aug 18 2010 at 12:09 PM
Wow your comment is so very true.I remember riding my bike,walking,roller skating everywhere I needed to go. And Our meals where at the table and not on tv tray's watching the boob tube. When my grand kids come for a visit I send outside to play on the swing set we got them and their scooters/bikes.They have over 40 acres to run and exhaust themselves.Kids are just to lazy nowadays and it is a shame because they grow up to be the inventors of gadgets to make the next generation lazier.Before you
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know it humans will be born with a hovearound attached to their ass.
Gabrielle
Mar 24 2012 at 9:53 AM
I love your comment on the Hoverround! How true! Just look at the people in nursing homes: in their 50's, overweight, and sitting around feeling sorry for themselves!
But you must excuse me for this short note, I am going outside to "play" in the garden and hang my sheets on the line.
Green wisdom
Our grandparents (or great-grandparents) — children of the Great Depression — could teach us a thing or two about going green on a budget. "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without," recalled one elderly woman when asked about what she learned as a child during the Great Depression.
Their carbon footprint was uber-small — they used less water, less fuel, created less waste and imported fewer goods than we do. They took these actions out of necessity as opposed to our modern-day desire to help the planet, but the ecological impact is just as powerful.
Here are seven lessons we can borrow from our elders that are easy on the wallet, and have significant environmental impact. Perhaps more importantly, they are easy to implement and relevant to our modern lifestyles — no extolling the virtues of riding a horse to work! (Text: Heather Gunther)
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