On the rare occasions that we watch TV, we try to hit the mute button before the commercial assaults begin, but we don’t always manage.  Last night I unwittingly heard a part of a car commercial with a catchy jingle that had something to do with green choices.

For a brief moment I wondered why they chose the color green to tout.  I don’t really see that many green cars around and about and I couldn’t imagine that manufacturers are trying to sell that particular color, anyway.  Then, of course, it hit me.  ‘Green’ these days no longer has to do with color choices.  It’s an eco-thing.  ECOnomy or ECOlogy?  Apparently either meaning is acceptable.

Suddenly, I found myself off on some reverie about “green stuff” – does that still refer to money?  And how long will it be before that reference dies in favor of “plastic?”  Or has that expression already become part of our English language archive?

Similar thoughts went through my head yesterday afternoon when I walked over to Tucker and Carol’s to see what progress is being made on their house addition.  The foundation is coming right along.  It’s cement, of course, and all ‘according to code.’

Our house, like the other old places in Oysterville, is built on a foundation made of rock.  It was built in the days when oyster schooners carried ballast of river rocks up from California.  Before filling their holds with bushel baskets of oysters, the sailors off-loaded the ballast as near to the bay shore as possible and those river rocks became free (I think) building material – a great boon on our sandy spit of land.

In my childhood, the scattered remains of rock were still apparent at the end of the Heckes Lane and slippy-sliding on their mossy surfaces amused us by the hour.  The big fireplace on the Heckes sun porch was built of ballast rock, too, and I have no doubt that other chimneys and fireplaces in the area were, as well.

I wondered briefly what else was introduced to the bay along with that California river rock.  These days we worry about such things but I doubt if such a thought occurred to those doughty pioneers.  Certainly they didn’t worry about depleting the native oysters.  Nor were they concerned, according to James Swan’s account, that they inadvertently set fire to the woods during a Fourth of July celebration – a fire that burned until winter rains put it out!

Of course, those were the days even before green was the color of money. In those days, it was gold… which opens an entirely new line of thought for another day.