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I have never suffered through a flood like a lot of folks; no tornado has struck here since I was about 15 years old, the only hurricane we had was Agnes in the '70's and it was just a whole lot of rain, and lightning has yet to strike anything vital. As I write all this I am knocking hard and often on the wooden desk where I sit. One can't be too careful and even though I don't believe in superstitions, there's no sense in tempting Nature. So the environment has generally been pretty good.
There was a year when the fruit crop on which we depended for our livelihood suffered a complete wipeout from a late spring frost, but even that was not as bad as having a hailstorm in July when we would have had thousands of dollars spent on the crop.
Having said that the environment has been pretty good to me, I try to return the favor. I would not describe myself as a "tree hugger." I believe that humans, their survival and prosperity, count for more than saving a tree or an owl or a snake. But since we all sort of depend on each other for our prosperity, I generally describe myself as environment-friendly.
In line with that, Ann and I have bought and try to use and reuse shopping bags, especially when we go for groceries. Before that we had a "bag of bags" that periodically went to the recycle box, but even that did not seem friendly enough. After all, it takes energy to make the bags in the first place and I am sure that it takes energy to recycle them. Enter the reusable shopping bag.
We bought a couple from one grocery store, a couple from the local hardware and other places gave us a couple more. We were well-stocked and on our way to being good shoppers who would never need to hear "paper or plastic?" again.
That was before we discovered that the only way to use those bags is to have them in the store when we needed them.
The usual routine is to buy groceries, have the store pack them in the neat cotton bags, carry the bags to the car, take them home and put the bags away for the next trip. We do well on all those counts, but more often than not, we forget the all-important first step.
TAKE THE BAGS TO THE STORE IN THE FIRST PLACE!
On more occasions than I am going to admit in public, we think about the bags at about the time we get in the check out line. Some times, Ann thinks about them when we pull into the parking lot; once in awhile I think about them as we go into the store. So all of our environmentally friendly plans get left behind the victims of faulty recall.
Now, don't tell me about all the ways to avoid this. I know them all. Put the bags in the car as soon as the groceries have been put away. Yeah. Put the bags on the coat tree next to the door so they will be there for the next trip. Uh-huh. Get two sets of bags and only use half each trip. Been there, done that.
The simple fact is that no matter what plan we use or what system gets put in place, it requires breaking a habit that has been reinforced for the past 40 years, and it wants me to do something different.
Habits, as we all know, don't give up easily. I suppose there might be other alternatives. Maybe if I had to BUY the plastic bags my memory would improve. Or maybe the store could just loan me bags to use the way the library loans out books. But whatever the system, I would again have to break a habit.
And let's face it, we all have a lot of habits that neither make sense nor fit in with our beliefs. Everyone likes doing things the way they have always been done. Familiarity is our friend. I pride myself on being "frugal," (some people call it "cheap") and generally unsophisticated in my tastes, but I also grind coffee beans to make fresh ground coffee - definitely unfrugal. I know determined environmentalists who "need" that SUV. I'll bet most all of us have one or two things that we do that go "against the grain."
People who drive hybrid cars might have their thermostat set at 72 degrees. The man with the compost barrel in his back yard mows his 30-foot by 30-foot lawn with a 20-horsepower mower. That neighbor down the street who burns wood in his woodburner has a $300 chain saw and $40,000 pickup to haul in the wood to "save" the environment. Yep, we all have our little ways to be frugal and save the planet.
So I'll try to remember the reusable bags the next time we go for groceries, but don't be surprised if you see me carrying plastic bags out to the car. And when you see me with them, try not to snicker. Nature does have ways to punish those who ridicule others.
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Glenn Schuckers and his wife Ann have lived in Brady Township, Clearfield County, since 1971. E-mail:curmud1@yahoo.com
