Seems like we spend a lot of time dealing with trash. It’s everywhere and there is lots of it. I remember living over at Stonewall. “Take the trash out” meant taking it out to the burn barrel and sticking a match to it. This got rid of most of it as we sent the stinking stuff into the atmosphere to pollute the atmosphere. It was gone with the wind as far as I was concerned. Residue of ashes and other non-burnable gradually filling the barrel with ashes would be hauled off to the dump and you could start all over. Environmental damages? Not a worry for me.

One summer, while my brother Gerald were spending our “summer at grandma’s” down on Wolf Mountain, I noticed grandma didn’t ever have any trash. I asked my know-it-all brother about it and he explained it to me. “Grandma and Grandpa seldom go to town,” he explained. When they do, they only buy what they absolutely have to have. Items such as salt, sugar and canning goods would be purchased. Coffee came in green coffee beans in burlap bags. The beans would later be roasted in a wood fired oven and ground in a hand grinder. The burlap bags were saved for other essential uses on the farm.

Everything else was raised on the farm. Pigs not only provided plenty of ham and bacon, but they also provided the lard used for cooking other items. Pigs also eagerly consumed the leftover foods. We called it “slop.” Beef was raised too and there were the good old chickens, delicious to eat and faithful in laying farmfresh eggs. Chicken feathers were valued in pillow making and mattress.

Vegetables? You raised them in the garden and if you were smart you would have a good enough garden for you to can hundreds of jars of vegetable soup (in reusable jars) and okra and corn. I could go on. My grandparents had no electricity to their farm until 1952 so nothing could be frozen or refrigerated.

Getting rid of old newspapers? No problem. The only paper they took was the Kansas City Star and it only came twice a week in the mail. After it was well read and studied but it was never tossed. The Star became like the sack containing the coffee beans. Another servant to the farm. Liners in chicken coops and good to use in the cabinets and drawers. Good newspaper stock worked well down at the one-holer too.

Kerosene was necessary for lights but was purchased in a re-usable metal can. No waste there either. Come to think of it, I don’t remember a single trash can or wastebasket down at grandmas. But if she had one it would have stayed empty. And I never-ever saw a plastic grocery sack flapping in a tree. But that’s not the case today. Now if you drive around, you might see hundreds of Walmart and Dollar Store bags waving at you. The bags steal away something we used to all have for free. A view of the wonders of mother natures. Despoiled and made ugly by trash bags, candy wrappers and drink containers. We spend millions of

We spend millions of dollars paying people to pick up after (what else?) other people. Basically, we are a trashy bunch, but we can all do something about that. We can stop tossing our trash into the streets. It’s no big bother to put that trash in the can. So, let’s do it. OK?

Meanwhile, I hope you all take care of yourselves this summer and do so happily and healthy. I’m enjoying hearing from Advocate readers. And be sure and go to church Sunday.

Oh yes, make sure you and all your loved ones have that Covid shot.

Wayne Bullard, DPh

cwaynebullard@gmail.com