White Trash at Flat Rock

More adventures of Bubba and Dolly coming your way next week!

 “E-what?” Leo Rousseau, a film maker in Gardner joked. It seems people are much more aware of ecology than they were in the late 1960’s when Earth Day got its name.

Rousseau was in Los Angeles working as an educational film maker on hot new topics like composting and organic gardening. Los Angeles was the last stop for a earth awareness march down the California coast. Participants held meetings in towns they passed through, hoping to spread the word on how the world’s systems interact. As Rousseau puts it, “basically, ecology.”

Although the end of the march was publicized, fewer people attended the meeting held in Los Angeles than in any of the smaller cities and towns along the route. However, the meeting had repercussions that still ring today. 

Realizing the earth did not have a birthday, the marchers and organizers designated April 22 as its birthday, now known as Earth Day. 

From this small beginning of what Rousseau referred to as farmers and hippies, environmental awareness has entered the mainstream. Venerable institutions like the Grange, founded in the mid 1800s, are now involved in Earth Day events.