Earth Day 2023

Happy Earth Day!

I hope you do something nice for Mother Earth today. I'm planning on planting some bee and butterfly-attracting plants. How about you? 

I have a funny, smelly memory of Earth Day, 1991. I took part in a college volunteer day in which teams did major projects in the community. At the end of the day we were supposed to eat a vegetarian meal together and the various teams would discuss what we did.

My team chose to clean out a nasty, clogged up river. I spent the day waist-high in cold, muddy water, pulling out car tires, lawn chairs, boots, bottles, cans, plastic, and debris. At the end, the water was flowing freely, and we'd bagged up dozens of recyclable, compostable, and upcycle-able items.

Our team arrived at the meal wreaking like we'd found a dead body. We were awarded "grossest team." We ended up eating outside so we wouldn't disgust everyone else, but even so, I couldn't really finish my food because of the smell! I had to wash my clothes twice to get the mud and stench out. I was wearing white Chuck Taylor high tops. They were never white again. 

I highly doubt a college-sanctioned clean up would ever condone this GenX level frontier-ism in 2023. Honestly, it's a freaking miracle any of us survived. Hahaha