My father got paid every 10 days while he worked as a Sergeant of Police in the city of Pittsburgh. I knew how often he got paid because that was also the day my father, mother, little sister and I would go grocery shopping at the Giant Eagle on Murray Avenue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood. My mother’s belief was food is the priority and with a the money still warm spend it accordingly.
When my mother would shop she would purchase more then she needed at the moment. My mother was a child growing up during the Depression. She knew that having more then you need for now was okay because somewhere in the future you would need the food. Times were never steady enough for her to believe that if you are okay now, you would certainly be okay later.
When my kids were old enough to explore the kitchen of my mother’s home, they would amaze at all the cans piled up in her cupboards. They counted the cans and giggled as they would expound upon just how much was piled up. They would look at the top of her refrigerator and count the seemingly endless bags of cookies. They would open the “fridge”, and with awe on their faces laugh at just how much food one refrigerator could hold.
The few times they asked my mother why, she would get very irritated and state, all this food was for the future. All this food was there because one day, even Adam and Dani, my two kids might need to use them. My kids were wise enough to know that Grandma was doing something she thought was right but something they certainly never understood, so the questions stopped being asked.
Sadly, the expiration date on the cans or the perishable date on the produce or the cookies got stale and much of the extra purchase had to be thrown away.
There is still great discussion about fossil fuels and how we need to continue to expend them, drill for them, and use them as if the consequence in using them was never as great as finding other sources of energy. We must “drill baby drill”, dig deeper and deeper, and ignore any environmental detriments in continuing our reliance.
When the oil embargo was in place during the Jimmy Carter administration, as a nation with bipartisan involvement and big business participation, we were told that whatever it took or takes, this nation will become oil independent. The American auto industry actually made an attempt to build smaller cars and many lights of government buildings were turned off early and some cities even stopped their Christmas light decorations.
Even though (for the months when the oil embargo was at its peak) America had been used to piling up its need for oil, we were told that too much just didn’t make sense. It was time to empty our cupboards of unnecessary items.
As is the norm for this country history seems to be ignored and any lesson learned is soon forgotten when it comes to Consumerism and Capitalism. The bottom line usurps reason and the worry about I might not have enough trumps any rhyme.
Now, as if we had no idea it could happen (because it has happened over and over again), we are in a fit about the rising prices of gasoline. We seem to wonder why now once again when every time before it was usually for the same reasons. We are fit to be tied and angry as hell.
But somehow lost in our angst and anger no one seems to recall how anytime alternative fuels have been supported as a way out, we refuse to embrace that option. We forget that since the days of the first oil embargo we did nothing much about stopping our romance with fossil fuels. We have amnesia when it comes to remembering that storing up our use of gasoline does nothing for the day when we really need it but can’t afford it.
My mother reluctantly discovered that too much no matter how good the reason, ended up costing her more then she bargained for. It took time for her Depression Era philosophy to wane and wander into the raw reality that it made no sense. After spending her hard earned cash for food she never could eat, my mother finally acquiesced to the fact she had better pay attention to tomorrow because it would not be food she was without, but the money to buy it.
I am not sure how we permit the Oil Cartels, the politicians, the marketing mavens, and our own lack of self restraint to continue ignoring tomorrow and just worry about today? When was the last time the price of oil really went down in price? When was the last time alternative energy was embraced by both parties as a real American alternative? When was the last time we all thought too much gasoline is never too much?
No comments :
Post a Comment