Grandma's Going Green
Well, the deal with my new landlord was that I do the lawn. I agreed because it was winter and several years since I had pushed a lawnmower, and frankly, I just saw the delightful fieldstone fireplace and the washer and dryer (no more laundromat!) and agreed to anything. Of course, now it is Spring and you know what happens in the spring. So I started gearing myself up for the job of cutting the lawn. Thankfully, my landlord's son (bless his soul) volunteered to do the front with the ride-on mower leaving me only the back to contend with. I looked at the self-propelled Torro they lent me for the job. All you had to do was pull the rope with the handle to start it and the rest was a breeze. I pulled and I pulled. It grunted and groaned. It sputtered and puffed. Fifteen minutes later, shoulder aching, I decided to just get a lawnmower I could start myself. Enter the garage sale. Of course the display of garage sale mowers was pathetic. All of them screamed that you had better have a man home to start them or else run. All of them shouted that except the one tucked away in the corner at 1 Durkee Lane, Rocky Point. It was so unobtrusive you almost didn't know it was there. It was green, looked really new, and had a grass catcher. What it didn't have was a motor. Yes, you read me right, no motor. It also was self propelled, and I would be the "self" if I bought it for $10.00. I asked the man selling it if he ever used it because it looked so new. He swore he had and claimed it was really easy to push, but the smirk his wife gave him told me otherwise. I went back to the car. "What are you nuts?", I asked myself as I drove away. I mean, it was cheap, and I wouldn't have to pull out my shoulder every time I used it. Sure, it didn't use any gasoline and my neighbors wouldn't have to suffer the Saturday morning noise pollution that accompanies cutting the lawn. Yes, no oil will leak from it onto the ground and eventually find its way into our groundwater, and I could get some much needed exercise pushing it around... but, what would people think? All my friends have traded up to ride-on mowers or lawn services, not gone backwards in time to this kind of thing.
That's when I turned the car around. If there's one cliché I have learned to be true over my 30 years of parenting it is that children learn what we do, not what we say. I put my ten dollars down and I tucked that lawnmower in my car and took it home. My friends and neighbors might all think I'm crazy (many of them are convinced already without the lawnmower) but I know one little girl who will be able to look at her Nona pushing an Eco-friendly lawnmower that doesn't look like anyone else's and when she asks me why, I'll be able to explain to her how and why I'm doing it for her.
Post Script:
If you would like to make a better future planet for Sarah and all her generation, join me and elowrance of Arlington, Texas (http://mommychaos.blogspot.com) from whose site I got this information. Go to http://ww2.earthday.net/ and sign their Sky Petition telling Congress that if they want to keep their jobs they must take stronger and immediate action to stop global warming and to reverse the extraordinary environmental destruction that is taking place around the world.
Visit Nona Nita's Nook at http://www.nonanitasnook.com for information and activities that support enlightened, modern grandparenting and
My Path Productions at http://www.mypathproductions.com for information, products, and services that uplift your life.
That's when I turned the car around. If there's one cliché I have learned to be true over my 30 years of parenting it is that children learn what we do, not what we say. I put my ten dollars down and I tucked that lawnmower in my car and took it home. My friends and neighbors might all think I'm crazy (many of them are convinced already without the lawnmower) but I know one little girl who will be able to look at her Nona pushing an Eco-friendly lawnmower that doesn't look like anyone else's and when she asks me why, I'll be able to explain to her how and why I'm doing it for her.
Post Script:
If you would like to make a better future planet for Sarah and all her generation, join me and elowrance of Arlington, Texas (http://mommychaos.blogspot.com) from whose site I got this information. Go to http://ww2.earthday.net/ and sign their Sky Petition telling Congress that if they want to keep their jobs they must take stronger and immediate action to stop global warming and to reverse the extraordinary environmental destruction that is taking place around the world.
Visit Nona Nita's Nook at http://www.nonanitasnook.com for information and activities that support enlightened, modern grandparenting and
My Path Productions at http://www.mypathproductions.com for information, products, and services that uplift your life.
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