Happy Earth Day!!

I feel so old.................

The very first Earth Day took place in 1970, when I was in the sixth grade. For our school's contribution, student volunteers were asked to help pick up trash off the highway, so of course I signed up because I liked the idea of getting out of class for the entire afternoon.

This being Southern California in April, it was about 90 degrees out, but we had a blast wearing jeans, playing the radio, and drinking all the soda we wanted (none of which were allowed under ordinary circumstances) while forking litter into big plastic bags. Then as if all this weren't reward enough, we were granted the privilege of going barefoot and consuming still more soda on the school bus going home, while the other students looked on in envy.

I remember lounging comfortably in my seat sporting the beginnings of that year's tan, bare feet propped up on the back of the seat in front of me, drinking a 7-Up and feeling---for once---like I was the coolest kid on the planet.

Naturally, it never occurred to any of us that we'd been in the vanguard of a movement that would still be going strong and in fact growing by leaps and bounds nearly 40 years later. Happy Earth Day!