ABSTRACT
I grew up in upper east Tennessee where for many people, including some of my older relatives, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle was a way of life because there was no other choice. My grandmother had no idea she was ahead of the cultural curve growing her own vegetables or recycling leftover fabric from her sewing job into garments. Nor did my great-uncle consider making his own wine a way to be closer to the earth. (To be honest, his stories about the life he and his ten brothers led as young men suggested that making adult beverages at home was simply a long-standing family tradition.)
The self-proclaimed local sophisticates who had managed to go to college or get jobs somewhere other than the farm, the railroad, a factory, or the military viewed those practices as backward country ways or only for the very poor. At this time a focus on ecology for its own sake was viewed as the domain of those disconnected from day-to-day reality. What a difference a few decades make?
