green is universal

By Jennie Baird, iVillage.com

I grew up in the 1970s, the daughter of Lola Granola and Hippie Al.

Summer vacation involved tent camping, outdoor "comfort stations", and a weekly (yikes!) 3-minute shower for four quarters. We lived in an old house that was always cold in the winter, but mercifully, was usually cold in the summer, too. Money was tight and my parents weren't so organized when it came to paying the bills (as an adult, I now understand these two things often go hand in hand), and after the power being shut off once, we kids learned well to always turn off the lights when leaving a room.

Flash forward 25 years and I have kids of my own. My sister has carried on the mantle of Lola Granola in my family; me, not so much. I did (briefly) drive a hybrid car, but wound up back in a minivan for practicality's sake. (I kept the hybrid in the family, passing it on to Lola Granola the Senior).

But two kids, one divorce, a mortgage and a career have all pretty much taken a front seat to any lingering environmentalism that might have carried over from childhood. Then, one typically gloomy winter evening two years ago, as I battled off the "I'm boreds" and the "You're a pests", of my loving children, there came a knock at the door. I answered it only to discover a long-haired Hippie Al the Junior type. He was from a local environmental organization and was collecting signatures for a petition to protect our nearby wetlands. I signed the petition, because after all, who could argue against protecting the wetlands? He asked if the children would draw pictures to send to Governor Pataki and said he would be back in an hour or two to collect them.

The children worked diligently for the next hour and a half. Calm reigned in my little house. No one was bored. No one was a pest. It was a miracle. Dare I say it was a miracle of environmentalism? Beautiful pictures featuring crocodiles and beavers and seagulls and "Protect the Animals" slogans were created by my loving children and handed off to Hippie Al upon his punctual return.

We never saw Hippie Al again, but over the next year or so, we saw the many family films with an environmental message that were released - Over the Hedge and Happy Feet come to mind. We took many long walks through the wetlands and on the cliffs above. As we walked, we noticed the birds - blue herons and egrets and hawks and cormorants. And as we walked, we talked. We talked about how turning out the lights and turning off the water can help the animals and the environment. And then at home, I pestered the children to actually turn off the lights and turn off the water. And after that, my son started pestering his friends at school about turning off the water and the lights. Then one day, he got into a fistfight with a kid who refused to turn off the water. Hey, suddenly, we were environmentalists!

So I guess it shouldn't have come as that much of a surprise to me when, one day last January, as we sat in traffic in our minivan, listening to the radio for news of a break in traffic, my son, now five years old, said to me, "Did they just say there's a new governor?"

"Yes", I replied in a moment of I'll-teach-you-about-citizenship parenting, "His name is Governor Spitzer. He was elected. He replaced Governor Pataki."

"Oh, then I better write and tell him about the swamp."

And sure enough, when we returned home, he got out his crayons, drew his crocodiles and beavers and seagulls, and with the help of his older sister, wrote this poignant message to the State:

"Dear Governor Spitzer,

Things are bad in the swamp."

Jennie Baird
Editor-In-Chief, iVillage.com