Like clockwork, as summer begins to unfold, I can’t help but reflect back to my summers as a child. Many of those were spent visiting my grandparents who lived in a tiny coastal logging and fishing town at the northern tip of California.  At the time I was in awe of the abundant garden my grandpa kept -- filled with green beans, garlic, lettuces, tomatoes and most any kind of vegetable you could imagine. The peas were my favorite and I can still remember snapping the pod back to reveal a half-dozen sweet, round orbs ready for consumption. It was, for a girl from the city/suburbs, remarkable.

I now realize that those visits exposed me to more than just a garden filled with treats but a way of life that ironically we are touting today as the answer to our energy crisis. My grandmother, Sophie, in particular taught me about conservation and demonstrated in her actions the beauty of living the “simple” life. I’m guessing that most Americans of the 1930s and 40s were similar to her.

Sophie was a woman of character. She came from Greece , from poverty, an orphan with a knack for cooking. Like most immigrants she came to America to create a better life. And she succeeded. With the help of her American neighbor, Gladys, and other ladies in her small town and with the help of my Grandpa Paul, who toiled away earning a dollar a day in the town’s lumber mill. Her character was benevolent, honest, hard working. Her life was spent nurturing and feeding not only her family but strangers and anyone else who was in need. A portion of her life was also spent teaching her grandkids that “to waste was to sin!” I don’t believe the term “carbon footprint” had been coined during her time but here are a few things Grandma Sophie did that would make her a climate change heroine should she be alive today:

• Line dried the laundry
• Took hand me downs and remade them into new clothes
• Grew her own food * Walked or took the bus (didn’t own a car)
• Drank milk that came in glass bottles
• Re-used flour sacks and made them into aprons
• Re-used the wrapping paper from her gifts (she would very slowly and painstakingly unwrap Christmas gifts much to the frustration of her very inpatient grandkids)
• Never used plastic bags
• Baked her own bread

So it seems to me as I continue to read the many articles now being written about climate change and reducing our carbon footprint that my Grandma Sophie had the right idea. Living simply, not wasting and conserving can make for a pretty good life.

The Native Americans’ look to their elders for the answers to most everything. Perhaps it’s time that we do the same.