Think green! Conspicuous consumer

Long before it was fashionable to Think Green, my husband’s mother Lived Green.
She didn’t just think about modern ways to “reduce, reuse, recycle and recover,” Mrs. Hershberger lived an even older adage: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” Mrs. Hershberger became a family legend for her frugalities that would please today’s Green Thinkers.

Married in the Depression to her exact opposite – the Conspicuous Consumer – they started out as dirt poor farmers. She went to auctions and bought old worn-out dressers, tables, beds and cabinets which she refinished into family heirlooms.

In the 50’s Mr. Hershberger bought one of the first television sets. In the 60’s, he bought a blonde oak stereo console, a matching television set in a wood cabinet and a Naugahyde lounge chair.

Mrs. Hershberger avidly read and followed every idea she found about natural and organic foods. She sought out the shops, the co-ops and farms where she could buy produce, milk, eggs and wheat to grind to make bread. Instead of paper towels, she kept a collection of old towels and rags handy to wipe-up messes – and washed them out afterwards.

After their children went off on their own, Mr. Hershberger annoyed her no-end, buying rich, calorie laden foods at the local eateries while she prepared big pots of vegetable soups using produce grown in her garden with soil enhanced with egg shells, vegetable peelings and chicken bones cooked until they yielded every bit of nourishment – including the marrow.
While she lovingly packaged up Christmas sacks of dried fruit and nuts for her children and grandchildren, her husband bought and proudly set-up an aluminum Christmas treed with the color wheel to light it.

As one of the original Green Thinkers, she realized that if something cost a lot of money, she could probably make it or grow it for less. So after her husband used his tiller to prepare the rich, black Indiana soil in their back yard, she planted it closely, weeded it on her knees and carried baskets overflowing with green beans, strawberries and corn to freeze for the winter.

In the 70’s he sported a fine leisure suit while she still made her own clothes – from her stash of fabric and old clothes. That stash, some of which dated back to the 30’s, filled a walk-in closet on the second floor of their house. My daughter had a delightful time in the early 90’s rummaging through grandma’s boxes of old clothes and finding cool outfits from the 60’s.

Over the years, the stash dwindled and disappeared as she made quilts and hooked rugs using her own designs on burlap bags. She backed the rugs using worn-out, faded blue jeans.
She never learned to drive, so Mr. Hershberger drove her to the grocery store in his gas guzzler. After his death, she pedaled her adult-sized tricycle to the neighborhood grocery store and carried her purchases home in the basket on the back.
He contributed to the rise of the American economy; she worked to save the country from burying itself in unnecessary waste.

When we visited, we ate her homemade vegetable soups and he brought us dessert – dipped ice cream cones from Dairy Queen.

Despite their differences, they both welcomed us warmly whenever we could come and visit with them – our loved ones – the Green Consumers.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times. E-mail her at jhershberger@eldoradonews.com.)


Posted

in

by