Celebrate Green Blog

by Lynn

I’ve never understood why humans always seem to be attracted to the new even if the old works just fine. At least, for the most part, American humans. Guess it’s part of our questing nature.

But the more I come to understand health, wellness and the crisis forming with the Earth, not to mention the financial straits in which we find ourselves, the more I am inclined (and excited) to look back for answers.

One of the places I’ve found practical solutions to many of the same issues we face today (i.e. less money, fewer resources), is a wonderful book titled, Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Depression.

Don’t let the title put you off. The book is brimming with tips and ideas of ways to survive on less. Of course then it wasn’t about living sustainably. It was about staying alive!

But put into the context of today, much of it makes sense, at least to me.

Here are just a few of the gems I gleaned from Little Heathens:

How they used baking soda:

• relieved indigestion
• brushed teeth
• kept silverware shining and glassware bright
• soaked curtains
• made a poultice for relief from stings and bites of honeybees, yellow jackets, hornets, mosquitoes and flies

Imagine the amount of money you’d save if you used baking soda instead of indigestion relief, toothpaste, silver polish, soap and first aid cream! Not to mention the packaging you’d avoid!

“A never-fail recipe to remove yellowed stains on dishes, tables or counter tops was to mix equal parts Bon Ami and cream of tartar into a paste with hydrogen peroxide. Apply paste to discolored area, leave on for 30 minutes, then rinse.” Bon Ami is still available and contains no bleach. (Though be sure to buy the “original” version as a few years ago they added a surfactant which some people are allergic to). The old product works just well and is a less expensive than most other similar, but more modern (and loaded-with-chemicals), products.

It goes without saying that vinegar was a staple, as it should be in any home where you care about health and the environment.

When socks of the biggest child got holes, grandma cut off the end, sewed it closed and passed the pair on to the next child. When the smallest child was done, the tops were cut off and sewed on to the ends of sleeves of fall and winter jackets and coats to keep out the cold!

When kids wore through the right hand of work gloves because they were used more often than left, they were instructed to turn the left ones inside out, creating another right-handed one.

Medical care was limited and saved for only grave emergencies. In those day, you’d no more go to the doctor because you had a cold than you would wear a diamond tiara to milk cows!

Here are some of the remedies they used—that worked! (Although I’m no doctor, so don’t take this as medical advice!)

• canker sore-harvest a green pepper from the garden, chew well but do not swallow—in winter substitute crystal of alum (but it doesn’t taste as good)
• got a scratch, cut or puncture? wrap a spiderweb around the wound
• if you step on a nail “bubble the poison out,” by pouring a bit of peroxide on it
• treat colds with Mentholatum or Vicks VapoRub

These are just a sampling of the “old-fashioned” remedies for those of us interested in simplicity, saving money and avoiding chemicals when we can.

For many more, plus an enjoyable, light-hearted read, pick up a copy of Little Heathens.

Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are mother and daughter and authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, and founders of Green Halloween®.