Energy Independence??

ROBERTA: I'm guessing most of the country is watching what's unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico with absolute horror: pools of oil washing up on the white beaches, the oil-slicked animals, the enormous plumes of oil under the surface floating lord knows where and wreaking who knows what destruction. Even if we're not directly affected by the disaster right now, who knows where the damage will end?

It's such a helpless feeling. I've read a number of essays and op-eds that remind us that this should be a wake-up call. Sure we've been talking about how we need to conserve energy and change from fossil fuels to green energy for years. But is now the time to really do something about it?

Sooner or later, my family will need to buy a new car. So we've been looking into the choices--we need room for long car trips, and want comfort and good driving in bad weather. But now I've added another line to the list--must, absolutely must, get better than decent mileage.

HALLIE: I thought a lot about energy conservation when we were in Greece--there, hotel room keys not only opened the door, but when you got in the room you put the into a slot and it turned on the electricity to the room. So when the room was empty, ALL the electricity was off.

The truth is, we Americans take not even the tiniest step toward energy conservation. If we could just turn off all our appliances (except maybe the fridge) when we're not using them, we'd save so much. What would make us do it--nothing short of a huge spike in the cost of electricity. Gouge baby gouge...my new mantra. My product for the new millenium: : The Really Really Off Switch.

HANK: Oh, really really off. So interesting! I've been in a million hotels this week--and I've noticed that the rooms are now very dark. Even if you turn on all the lights (sorry). So clearly someone has realized at this level there are ways to save energy even with things on.

Isn't the answer is to find another energy source. And yet, when people start talking about wind turbines, it's all--not in my back yard!

(Digression: CONGRATULATIONS TO HALLIE for winning THE DAVID at Deadly Ink Convention! We're so proud! And well deserved...)

JAN: Congrats Hallie!! Energy conservation is tricky because you have movie stars promoting "green" as they fly between gigs in their private jets. People in 10,000 foot square foot homes point to SUVs as the culprit. Everyone blames someone else and gets all huffy about it.

I'm frugal by nature so I'd like to see everyone live more economically and modestly. But in a capitalist society, its not really going to happen unless economics dictate. In my formative years, I was impressed by research I did for a magazine article on alternative energy for The Real Paper. So I was appalled when people on the cape and Martha's Vineyard opposed the Wind Farm. And I still don't think it will destroy the view, but when I learned how much more expensive energy from the wind farm was going to be, I started to feel like I'd been had by a "feel good" solution.

I just don't believe that anything that's not driven by economics will succeed.

HALLIE: See? Gouge!!!! It's the only way. Oil and gas and coal have to get prohibitively expensive or everyone clutches their wallet and moans.

Thanks on the David... Is it 'energy-efficient' bulbs that make those rooms so dark?

ROBERTA: Just came across a very interesting article about whether people doing the little things can make a difference. This lady says yes, absolutely and references Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. Once you're finished reading us, please hop over and take a look.

RO: I guess I think we do our own small part to conserve energy. We have one car, don't have a.c. in CT, I use a manual lawn mower, we put in a new energy efficient heating system, installed the smaller toilets which use less water, I no longer run the water while I brush my teeth, we use the goofy light bulbs and reuse or recycle. I have to think doing the little things matters - otherwise I wouldn't do any of it.
I remember going out with a colleague once and requesting skim milk for my coffee. She jokingly asked how many calories I was saving by not using the cream and I said I had no idea. But if I didn't do it, I might be asking for the dessert menu instead. Same principle.

RHYS: My congrats to Hallie too! Jungle Red Babes rock!
I've always been energy conservative. I think living in California we are so aware of water conservation. I also haven't run water while i brush my teeth for decades. We have all energy efficient light bulbs--they are somewhat dim compared to the old kind and they don't look pretty but the savings are enormous. We have our garden on a timed drip system. We've always made good gas mileage a priority. My last 3 cars have been Camrys and I will probably get the hybrid next time, unless they come out with a good electric car first.
What bugs me a lot is the absolutely wasted energy--skyscrapers with every office blazing light all night. Ditto department stores. I know they need some light for security, but surely there could be a night system.
I'd like a clothes line in my backyard as we get plenty of sun, but this is frowned upon. It's especially stupid not to dry clothes outside in Arizona where we have three hundred plus sunny days a year.
I'd like to be able to walk to stores and post office, but I can't, so a tiny plug in car for errands might be a great idea if they come up with an inexpensive one.

ROBERTA: Love the story about the skim milk Ro! Rhys, isn't that no-clothesline rule the ultimate in silliness? Maybe you can start a revolution in your condo complex! How about you guys? Are you noticing changes in your choices? And by the way, I have two brand new copies of UNSPOILED: Florida Writers Speak for Florida's Coast to give away to those who comment. It's a gorgeous book full of thoughtful essays.

And lest you think this will be a dreary week on Jungle Red, we welcome firecracker newcomer Sophie Littlefield to the blog on Wednesday. Then we'll be turning to food, glorious, food, and a surprise foodie guest on Friday. So come back often!

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day from Jungle Red Writers! (We can't really say happy fourth when it's the fifth, can we?)

We hope you're out boating or playing golf or eating a fabulous picnic. Come back tomorrow for our regularly scheduled conversation--and lots more all week!

In the Good Old Summertime!

I remember summer well. It was a time with no structure and no commitments. I played alone in our orchard, building a tree house, making a trapeze on a big apple tree and pretending I was Patsy of the Circus (my current favorite heroine). I remember that I used to do some pretty amazing stunts on that trapeze. I never fell off either, because Patsy never fell off.

On other days I'd go with my friends into the woods and we'd play exciting cops and robbers type of games. Sometimes I'd go off on my bike, find a stream and catch tiddlers and minnows in a jar. Summer days seemed to stretch on with no end. Sitting on the bank of the stream, warm sun on my back, eating a cheese and pickle sandwich and fruit from out trees was just perfect.

It still sounds perfect now. Every summer I say to myself that I'm going to take time off to chill out, to sit in the shade with a book and a cool drink. And what happens--I look up one day and it is September and the summer has slipped away.

Of course I know the world has changed. My daughters can't let their children go off for the day on their bikes. You'd never let ten year olds play in the woods without adult supervision. But I deeply regret it. We've taken from our children the time of wonder and creativity and imagination. Instead we've filled their summers with structure. They go to tennis camp and swim camp and computer camp, and play dates are arranged. But they rarely have the luxury of planning their own time, going where they please, stopping when they feel like it and coming home when they are tired.

I think my summers helped make me the writer I am today. I lived a lot of that time in the world of my imagination. I became observant of tiny details as i watched nature around me. I became resiliant as I fell from a tree, trying to hammer a plank for my tree house, scratched my knees, cleaned myself up and climbed back up. Now that I'm a grown up I'm hardly ever bored. I can always think of something I'd like to do. I can take myself off and wanter a strange city without feeling scared that I'll get lost.

I'm off to UK and France on Sunday. At least some of that time I plan to wander through the woods, sit by a river bank and maybe even catch tiddlers in a jar. I wonder if you can go home again?

JAN: For the most part, my kids tried, but resisted camps because they needed that time of no-structure. One camp-less summer my son learned to play guitar from a CD-set I bought him, and now he's an awesome guitarist (lessons later, of course) with a band that actually makes good money at his college. So all that downtime definitely helped make him who he is today.

There's some movement out of Manhattan that's working hard to convince parents that kids don't need all the 24-hour security and supervision that we think they do. That our perceptions of the risks is distorted by the news and that perception is actually hurting kids. But I do sympathize -- and its not like I was brave enough to let my kids wander as much as they should have.

HALLIE: The problem for most parents is that free time for kids means the parents need to be free, too - when I was working summers there was no choice but camp, But I believe in teaching kids to fend for themselves. We taught them to take the T in and out of Boston, to read a street and subway map, to figure out how to get home from wherever they were. I'd never send them off alone, but with a small group of friends, I always felt Harvard Square in the evening, watching the buskers, was far safer than dropping them at the mall.

ROBERTA: We lived in a neighborhood full of kids and we all bombed around together on our bikes, playing games and making forts. No lessons, no camps, nothing structured at all. But Hallie's right--the parents have to be around to make this work. My mother was a teacher so she could be a home base when (and if!) we needed one. I think it's partly that the times have changed and are a little more scary, but it's also a sense that kids will miss out if their schedules are not crammed with planned activities. I'm like Rhys--never, ever bored and I credit those days of summer for that!

RO: Oh, I thought this post was going to be about that great old Judy Garland movie..

Growing up in Brooklyn, it was all about the beach. Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, Riis Park, Rockaway and Coney Island. Baby oil and iodine and sun reflectors. God, how we abused our skin! And our bodies...eating knishes and thick cut fries cooked in oil that was probably the same oil they used to cook the fries my parents ate when they went to Coney.
When we got older it was going to the mountains or the country. If you lived in Brooklyn, Manhattan was "the city" and the Catskills were "the mountains" or "the country." There were no other mountains. I didn't catch tiddlers. My mother had me vaccinated.;-)

HANK: Summer--didn't it use to last forever? We'd go to the library, and get ten books, the limit, and I'd bring them home and curl up in the special place in the big tree in the back yard and devour them. Or sometimes I'd read in the hayloft in the barn.
We had shows on the back porch, my sisters and me. I remember, "Dancing to 88 Keys" was one title I somehow came up with. We'd wear costumes, like big crinolines over our shorts, and pretend to be performers.
We'd take picnics down to the creek, riding our ponies, and read by the water.
And oh, yes, when we were older: Iodine and baby oil. Yikes.
Popsicles! That you could break in two. And MAD magazine.
Every year we'd take a big family vacation: to Jackson Hole, or Scottsdale, or, locally, Lake Maxinkuckee, where there was a very cool military school with incredibly cute cadets. We loved that..

RHYS: This post is evoking more and more summer memories. The summer my kids joined kids from the block and put on a circus. They practised for days and actually were pretty good although the dogs wouldn't perform as ordered with frilly skirts on. My daughter Jane goes with her family and friends to a cabin by a lake for a week each year. Although it's really simple my granddaughters Lizzie and Meghan look forward to it for months. It has become their private world with rituals repeated each summer. Now that's my kind of summer...
So what are your favorite summer memories?