Earth Day – Dear Liza

Tidying up the Neighborhood

Dear Liza,

This week is Earth Day, so the SOLVE group here in Portland had clean up parties all over town this past weekend. And I helped!

Actually, Auntie Bridgett and I joined a group of about 50 people at Buckman Elementary School, collected vests and bags (we brought our own trash grabbers) and headed off into the neighborhood.

We started in the school yard, and got to see interesting details of Buckman that I’d never noticed before. For example, they have a really long slide to get down to the field.

Of course I rode it!

There are also delightful decorations all over the place. This wonderful mosaic is just above the slide, and can be seen from all over the field.

We walked away from the school, picking up all sorts of wrappers, bits of paper, and of course, cigarette butts. We got to see the area’s many murals. This one, perfectly enough, shows the strength of women.

And we found a bit of history in this piece of curb on Belmont, impressed into the cement.

“Work Projects Administration 1940”

When we had walked and picked up pizza boxes, old shoes, and bottle caps for two hours, we were worn out and ready to head home.
What a fun, useful day!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Earth Day, 2020

Dear Liza,

The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. I was in 8th grade and knew nothing about it. By the next spring, I had started high school, met your Grandpa Nelson, and gotten a new bunch of friends. We all celebrated Earth Day that year by planting African violets around what was then called The New Building at Mira Costa High School, in Manhattan Beach, California.

It felt good, being out there in the sun with other idealists, feeling we were making a difference, making the world better and more beautiful.

In the fifty years since, we have seen a lot of movement toward this ideal. Solar power, wind power, more awareness of one’s “carbon footprint”, and the idea that living closer to nature is better. Counteracting those advances are the powerful forces of corporate greed, and a current President who believes whatever his corporate buddies pay him to believe. This tug of war has been going on since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, but every year it feels more desperate.

And now, with the country mostly locked down and staying inside, what have we learned? For one thing, that many of the jobs that people have been commuting to, burning gallons of gas and creating tons of greenhouse gases, can really be done from home. We don’t have to trash the world to make a living.

I hope people take this time to re-think their habits, and see that home is good, peace is good, and that madly dashing from one place to another doesn’t make their lives better.

And that’s my soapbox speech for Earth Day, 2020.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Earth Day at University Park

Dear Jasper and Kestrel,

Sunday was Earth Day! Liza and I celebrated in several ways. First, we used some wonderful sunflowers given to Liza’s Mommy Olga to make a huge bouquet for the table.

Then we went out for a walk, to see the lovely flowers everyone has in their gardens. We walked past University Park Elementary School, the school I have worked at for 28 years, which had invited parents, teachers and families to come make the school more beautiful. Liza and I stopped by to help.

Before we knew it, we had gloves on and were pulling weeds. Rakes and shovels helped, too. Mrs. Gaynor and Miss Nichols, the sixth grade teachers, were in charge of the operation and Ms Laird, our Vice Principal, was there as well. I worked with some former students, as well as younger kids who would be my students if I was teaching next year. Valerie Beltran is the only current Dragon that I saw there. She and her Mama both worked really hard. Everyone was so helpful and friendly!

Most of the activity was focused on the garden. This area was fenced in a few years ago and equipped with planter boxes. The big school lawnmower can’t get in, so the grass grows like crazy. The planter boxes themselves were also getting overgrown and needed help.

In a different area, kids were painting wooden flowers and long green stems to be placed along the chain link fence that goes around the garden. This will make it prettier and more cheerful. Liza got to paint a flower and then came and helped me pull weeds.

At noon, Miss Nichols’ Dad and Mom, who I have known since Miss Nichols was student at University Park, made us all hot dogs for lunch. We were all so hungry, tired and sweaty! But it was fun working with old friends, and getting to know new ones.

Two young people who worked very hard were Brandon and Isabella, third graders in Mimi Nolan’s class. They worked together carrying heavy loads and pulling giant weeds. I taught Brandon’s older brother Christian, so it was nice getting to know him.

I am proud of my school for pulling together and proud my granddaughter helped out, as well.

Love, Grandma Judy