register |  login
› THORNTON
Loading Ad
Visit Other Hubs:
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Tower
Blog
USE IT UP! WEAR IT OUT! MAKE DO! OR DO WITHOUT!
GREEN is everywhere these days. I've been doing the whole green thing for over 50 years. Grew up in New England in a very poor family. Wasteful we were not! Passionate about recycling, reusing, and reducing the waste stream and protecting our natural environment. I will share my experiences, stories and information so you may also live the Green Life.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~GreenJeane

In The Beginning.........
Contributed by: Jeane Thompson   on 5/8/2008

....there were grandparents & great-grandparents who lived through the Depression Decade. Farmers and Jack of All Trades they were. By the late 1950s they were fairly comfortable yet continued to live as if in the Depression.
Grandmothers raised chickens, sold eggs, canned and froze vegetables from their own gardens, stored root veggies, apples, pears & nuts from their orchards, made jellies, jams, pickles, relishes and more. Great-Grandma had 12 Jersey cows she was still milking by hand at age 92. She also had lots of grape vines and pear trees. Juice was made from the grapes, but absolutely no wine.
Grandfathers raised beef cattle, hogs & bees and sugared (maple syrup) every spring. They also hunted for venison, bear, moose, turkey & duck. Ice fishing brought in delicious perch, spring and summer was trout season. Butchering was done on the farms and everyone helped. One grandfather had an oil furnace but the other continued to cut and burn his own firewood until he died in the late 1990s.
As the eldest grandchild in both families and all being girls until I was almost 5 years old, I was chosen to help the grandfathers with the outdoor work. I learned to cut firewood with both an ax and a chainsaw. Everything was saved as all had a use. Even the leaves! I loved working with the bees, driving the tractor while the men piled the hay on & digging the potato fields in the fall.
Meanwhile back at the house, grandmothers were saving everything. Glass jars, tin cans & boxes from the few store bought items like peanut butter or orange juice. Clothes , newspapers, magazines, books, everything was recycled & reused within the families or with friends and neighbors.
I came of age at the end of the 1960s. Owned 1st car when the 1973 gas crisis hit the US. When I started living on my own, the lessons I learned from my grandparents about what was then called "penny pinching" came in very handy.









SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above blog



Talk Back : submit comments to the blog

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Jeane Thompson

Thornton , CO

Jeane Thompson has posted 1 blog entry and 0 comments since joining on 1/4/2008. Jeane Thompson 's average blog rating is 0.
SAVE AND SHARE THIS BLOG ENTRY
CONTENT RSS FEEDS
BLOG LIST
WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?
Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is  register,  then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyonewhat events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

Loading Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

This YourHub.com community is produced by The Denver Newspaper Agency
Web Development and Channel Analytics provided by Indigio

terms of use //  privacy policy
the staff //  advertise //  help & faq
buy photos