Going Green isn't a new concept.

As I drove to the store today, I started thinking about the concept of Going Green. I made sure that I put my fabric shopping bags in the car so that I could avoid receiving more plastic bags. I hate those plastics bags, because the stores put 2 to 4 items in each bag and then after only buying 25 items I end up with 10 plastic bags. Then I have to carry ten bags in the house and store 10 plastic bags that I don't need. I keep the bags because they can be useful, but I must have several hundred bags.

I've had a few talks about this Green concept with my mother and the concept isn't new. I grew up in a Green Home, and my mother grew-up in an Ultra Green Home. My mother grew-up in a home where nothing was wasted and everything was saved, because it could be useful later. This is most likely why my mom and her siblings are pack rats. Looking back at my childhood, some of the best crafts and toys that I created came from what most people would consider trash today.

When I was a child, a paper bag (they didn't have the plastic bags at the grocery stores way back then), a butter bowl, newspapers, catalogs/magazines, and any box from a kleenex box to a large cardboard box was a treasure. I remember being excited about an empty kleenex box, because it had a lot of uses, my favorite was a Barbie Car, but it could be a guitar with a few rubberbands, and was great for storing Crayons, and turning it over and drawing stove coils. See many of my toys were GREEN. The butterbowls were great for storing small things in (barbie shoes and Fisher Price Little People) and using them as bug houses. I loved catching bugs, mainly ladybugs, or fireflies and all I had to do was poke holes in the lid and put some grass in the bowl. A paper bag was a main need for most paper crafts, and Magazines and Catalogs had terrific pictures for collages. I even learned how to make a small Christmas Tree from a Readers Digest.

My mom used many of the same items for household uses. Butterbowls and jars were used for storage of food and small house hold items. She still has a few small Parkey butterbowls around the house from 1970 something and if you open them they will have things like rubberbands, paperclips, buttons, and small toys.

How green was my mother. She used Cloth Diapers, reused all the items listed in the prior paragraphs, had her own vegetable garden when she could, sewed and repaired clothes. We walked to the store when we could, and recycled bottles,cans and newspapers. She even reused baby food jars, if I dug around in her basement I'm sure I could find one from the 1960s. Can you believe that my parents weren't hippies? They are conservatives and lived Green. Green isn't a hippy concept, it's a conservative one that was used by conservatives and our fore fathers for hundreds of years. If you go into any middleclass conservatives home, who is over the age of 50 you'll find that they have been Green since birth.

I've been lazy like many Americans, and I've been throwing away perfectly good things. That behavior is going to change. I'm going to teach my girls how to make what looks like trash into toys and craft projects. I'm going to wash and keep many of my plastic containers, and I'll reuse bags and avoid getting the plastic bags by using fabric bags. Jeff may not be happy with my storage of clutter, but I'll hide it in the basement. Plus he'll need a plastic container or paperbag and then he'll appreciate my clutter for a moment. I've lived Green compared to most people and I've saved some of these items, just not to the extreme that my mother had.

I can proudly say that I was raised Green and have lived a fairly Green life! That statement will confuse most people born after 1980, they think Green is this terrific new trend, concept, lifesyle that has only been around for a few years. All you 20 something kiddos that want to be Green have a talk with your Grandparents and they can give you a ton of ideas on reusing items that are normally just concidered trash. I can't forget about my dad, he had about 20 uses for a coffee can! I'm sure that I can find a coffee can from 1970 something in his basement or garage. The Green concept is an American Tradition, that was lost for 20 years, but is back so "GO GREEN"!