From Refuse to Reflection My earliest memories begin of myself at four years old. At that time, I had an older brother and sister, and a baby brother. My parents had this really cool looking red Plymouth car, complete with gear shifting push buttons and big tail fins. The front seat was a huge bench; I hate to admit it, but my dad would let me stand beside him while he drove, my little arm draped across the back of his neck. I remember standing there on one trip when my dad asked me how old I was. I still have this mental picture of him grinning at me when I held up my entire hand to show him I had turned five! As I grew, so did our family, with the addition of another brother. This time, my parents bought a Rambler station wagon. The older kids and the baby sat in the middle seat, while my oldest little brother and I got the back seat. It was awesome, as the seat faced backwards. Since our backs were to everyone else in the car, our parents couldn’t see what we were doing, and they were too far away to do anything about it even if they could’ve seen! When my family would take long trips (they were only about two or three hours, which seemed like an eternity when I was small), my brother and I would take toys along with us: I usually took my miniature farm animals and he would
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bring his cars. We would slouch down on the floor and give puppet-type shows to the cars behind us. We lived on a country road, about six miles outside of our town. One time as we were nearing home, with my brother and I horsing around in the rear-facing seat, my brother took one of my shoes and threw it out the back window. For some reason, we both found this hilarious. My parents, not so much. One item that I seem to remember always being in both of these childhood cars was a “litter bag”. There were several anti-litter campaigns that I still remember: “Please Don’t Be a Littler Bug”, “Every Litter Bit Hurts”, and “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute”. It was ingrained in me that I should never throw anything out my car window. I carry this practice still today, although I did get out of the habit of putting any kind of trash bag in my car. The pandemic of the last year changed that for me. My husband and I both started keeping plastic bags in our vehicles, so that we could throw away disposable wipes and used face masks. It’s a practice that I hope to continue even when we are through this pandemic, as it’s quite convenient! Who knew?!
