In Support of Sea Turtles

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A gifted memory is something I do not posses. My brother, on the other hand, will remember how to find my great aunt’s apartment building, even if the last time we traveled there Reagan was president.

I can only remember a few events from when I was 10 years old or younger, and one of them was balloon day. All of the kindergarten classes were led outside, given balloons, and told to release them at the count of ten.

I looked up. An abstract Seurat of boldly colored balloons. And then they floated into a hundred directions. Apparently killing sea turtles, because the next year we were no longer allowed to send plastic into the air, as we were only 60 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.

I of course didn’t want dolphins and fish and turtles to die, but that vision of carefree balloons traveling to the clouds made me happy. But I also think the rush came because I knew it was something our class wasn’t supposed to do.

I haven’t thought of that magical balloon day in years. But when I bought a six-pack of beers with hard plastic rings surrounding the necks, I thought about a change in my environmental consciousness.

80 and I picked up two flavors from Depot Street Brewing in a grocery store in Tennessee. The beer was okay, but I we were happy to buy local and I was fully intrigued by their funky red plastic holders. I tried to figure out the gimmick; it looks like they are reusable and there is a recycling program tied to returning the holders to the brewery (150 returns gets a drinker a free T-shirt).

I’m hoping to see more of this: local breweries leading the green revolution.

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4 comments

  • Jason Mosley February 11, 2010  

    When I was in Tenn. last summer I visited there tiny brewery in Jonesborough. I got to sample all there beers and thought each style was well done. Nothing spacial but more then drinkable.

    The two guys that run the place are really nice and next time your in Tenn you should visit.

  • LC February 12, 2010  

    Nice polish, gansie.

  • gansie February 12, 2010  

    @LC – thank you! i adore that color. its from American Apparel’s new line of polishes (this is peacock).

    although, theres some sort of scandal with their colors and how they were distributed, or something like that:

    http://www.vampyvarnish.com/2010/01/26/american-apparel-nail-lacquer-swatches-review

  • Nee Nee February 15, 2010  

    I just returned from Montana, which is home to ME and one of the very best microbreweries in the country, Bayern Brewery. The lucky nine hundred or so thousand people who reside in Big Sky Country are charmed to have a brewery with a German brewmaster who brews beers according to the German Beer Purity Law of 1516. Bayern recently started buying back their six-pack carriers and recycling their gently used bottles and bottle caps. It might not seem like much, but this is not a place concerned about the environment (we were served take-out lattes in styrofoam!) and I spent the whole weekend putting my bottles in my Mom’s trash (The Parents live 4 hours from the brewery and the bottle return isn’t feasible.) Ouch! Montana has a lot of land in which all my beer bottles hide, but Bayern Brewery is doing what it can to preserve ‘The Last Best Place.’

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