Part 1 of 6
By Marilyn Houser Hamm
I don’t think of myself as a senior. It seems like yesterday - or not that long ago- that I came to Manitoba as a young bride to begin life in the European style village of Neubergthal that reminded me so much of my Swiss grandfather’s home outside Basil, Switzerland. I had been persuaded that we could live with my husband’s parents in their large house happily for the first while – that’s another story.
What I do remember vividly is thinking that I had gone back two generations in time. With no water lines coming through the village, and, that first winter, no indoor plumbing, I was in shock. My mother-in-law’s tiny spinner washer pulled out into the room for laundry day, proceeded to move its way through all gradations of laundry - all hung outside to dry - yes, all - and then brought inside in the winter months to be hung by trails of clothesline interwoven across the ceiling of the upstairs hallway. My mother-in-law was also a homemade noodle factory, and on days when no laundry was being done, racks of freshly turned and cut noodles were hung to dry. (At the peak of production, 122 dozen eggs a month were sold at $4 for a paper grocery bag full.). I remember scolding’s for leaving the fridge door open too long, for excessive use of water, or fuel. I remember land that was summer-fallowed; gardens fertilized with manure. Drinking water came from the neighbour’s well; all other water was hauled in to fill the cistern. Life was simple and well-defined.
Things have changed enormously in the past two decades alone - on many fronts. I remember paper grocery bags until, one year, we were suddenly offered the choice - “Paper, or plastic?” But far from “progress” or “just the way things are now,” our communities and households are being called to a new level of awareness - to begin thinking about the things we have grown accustomed to not thinking about. Such is the theme of Tatiana Schlossberg’s “inconspicuous consumption/ the environmental impact you don’t know you have.” (2019, Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Book Group, New York, NY.)
With a quirky wit and the warmth of coffee with a friend, Schlossberg focuses on four huge areas: internet & technology, fuel, food, and fashion. She tells us as individuals, corporations, and governments, how we are all contributing to the present environmental crisis, and how we must work together to fix it. Further articles on Inconspicuous Consumption which will follow seek to bring you, and our communities, into the conversation.
ACAN seeks to educate and inspire sustainable practices in our community.
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