30 Tomorrow may rain so I'll follow the Sun Part 1

I can get a few dates a little off, but this one is set in stone. April 22, 1970 was the first Earth Day and I was part of it. Not just attending the rally but I was part of a small group of volunteers that did work for the Environmental Action Committee in New York City. This was not a large "non-profit" with a big machine behind it, like things are nowadays. This was a very small office. I think I remember one desk with some file cabinets and some chairs. I never saw a bunch of people because you'd go in there and get an assignment and leave. I only ever saw the long haired dude that I met in the park and the Bernadine Dohrn looking chick that sat at the desk. All the female activists looked like Bernadine back then.

Sure, I walked around with my copy of Silent Spring but I just want to say that pollution in the early 70's was beyond belief. Especially if you lived near a large city. There were oil and chemicals being dumped in the waterways. I remember the smoke stacks along the Jersey Turnpike spewing out all kinds of smells. The creek that I swam in when I was like four or five years old, had creeping oil slicks on it by then. It is so, so much cleaner in the US now. It's other parts of the world that really need to work on it now.

New York

Cleveland

But the cars were great

It was the winter and spring days before April 22. I'd go into the office every weekend and get my assignment. God if I remember where it was. I should have written this stuff decades ago. My father wanted me to write a book in the 70's, but I was still having a good time.

Maybe sometimes I went alone, but my assignments were almost always alone. They split us up to get the most coverage. I was sent to areas mostly in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I spent my days cheerfully handing out flyers about pollution. New Yorkers would possibly take them while walking very fast, glance at it and then throw them on the ground. They really needed those anti-litter campaigns. People didn't give it much thought. Lots of stuff thrown out car windows. The difference though was that everything was some form of paper or cardboard, not all the plastic crap today. There was some chance it would decompose.

So I'd take a minute or two every so often and go pick up the paper. Sometimes I'd hand them out & sometimes I'd throw them away. No recycling. But I just want to say a lot of people were nice, even though they were in a big hurry. On occasion someone would stop and talk. Usually a very interesting character. Many times an older person that lived a long life and wanted to share some of their knowledge. I was always willing to listen and learn something from them. People were honestly more colorful then. All the way around. Their clothing, their language and their thought. When did this all change? A little editorial here... we are turning into homogenized gray boxes. Just like the new constructions and the cars. Why are cars such bland colors now? Maybe we'd be a little happier if there was a little color in things nowadays. Open up some discussion.

The long haired dude was really tall. He'd check in on us and talk for a few minutes. I'm not very tall. If I stand up straight maybe 5'4". But I really had to bend my neck to look up at him or maybe it just seemed like that. I was in awe of his fire. He was really sparked with dedication or maybe he was on speed. I don't know. He had a lot of fiery speech that was more expletive than dictionary words. "Wow," I thought to myself, "Can I mimic this way of speech? I need to convey enthusiasm." Alas, I must always be me. A few here and there but just not to that degree. Even with all that coaching from the Golden twins.

One day I was handed a clipboard with a petition on it. I don't remember what it was about but I can tell you that at that time people that tried to get petitions signed were actually interested in the subject matter, cared about it and were volunteers. You still run into that, I guess, but most of the time, I believe, people are are paid by whatever special interest. This was a much harder job than handing out flyers.