Flashback

Our back lawn is dying. It's brown and yellow and the dirt below is rock hard. In the winter, it's a luscious green, but in the summer it requires significant watering to stay alive. Ian and I made an executive decision a few weeks ago to just leave it alone. I had been reading that this year may be a record-breaker in terms of lack of rain. I had been hearing that we are possibly in for a drought year rivaling the drought conditions of the 70's. I was explaining that to my mom the other day when she saw the desert behind our home. And something she said took me back to my childhood.

I remembered the drought conditions we had in the late 70's. Everyone was urged to conserve water. We had a swimming pool that we didn't maintain, leaving it half-filled to avoid wasting water. We took brief showers, turning off the water to shampoo and lather up, turning the water back on only to rinse. The gross conservationist strategy was that we only flushed the toilet if we did #2. Otherwise, we let volumes of #1 collect until the deposit of a #2 justified the 2-3 gallons of water used per flush. I hope it doesn't get like that again.

I also remembered the gas crisis in the 70's. I remember waiting in lines for hours to get gas. I think Carter had decided to impose some restrictions on fuel, resulting in a severe shortage. But that was back when gas cost 10% of what it now costs. I definitely hope we don't revisit the long waits in addition to the increased cost.

And I remembered hearing in school that scientists had been studying the weather patterns and were warning that we should prepare for an ice age. I remember hearing my teacher talk about the possibility that we, like the dinosaurs, might end up going extinct. I wonder what happened to that data when they started postulating the possibility that we're now supposed to be entering a global warming disaster. I really hope we don't revisit the ice age idea. I much prefer warm weather to cold.

Clarice