Letter: Thoughts on trash and the rising cost of food

By Letter to the Editor on September 17, 2022.

Dear editor,

Referring to the ‘new’ trash situation and the latest articles in the News regarding the cost of food.

I remember a more recent time when the more prevalent ‘trash’, in ditches, on our streets – well, anywhere – consisted of mostly ‘coffin nail butts’ and their empty packages. The cig butts and their empty containers trash decreased along with the decrease in folks who indulged. The whole trash situation ‘seemed’ improved. And then…and then that coronavirus, with it, the need for wearing masks, especially the disposable ones, came along. And yeah, you guessed right…the latest ‘winner’ in any possible contest about what items are the new threat to our city’s reputation as one of the less trashy – as in cleaner – smaller communities, are ‘thrown away just anywhere masks.’ I keep wondering what kind of upbringing the perpetrators of the more obviously intentionally thrown away masks, just anywhere, instead of into one of the many trash receptacles, had.

Referring also to the high cost of food, does anyone, including even the younger generations who must have learned about it in their school years, remember the Victory Gardens that Britons, during WW2, found very, VERY necessary to plant, in order to even survive the onslaught of those U-boats that had tried to starve the British into submission? Well, how many Hatters, except for the many who insist, and always have, on planting at least a part of their gardens or even their balconies, with ‘veggies’, are there now?

Does anyone, except students of local history, remember when the CPR decided on planting a large veggie garden in/on the now totally unused area, except for the odd one using it for parking, just south of that tunnel, north of the CPR station?

Well, instead of having to decide whether anyone can afford to buy food or medicine, etc., how about more Hatters being ready to join one of the local public garden clubs and returning that piece of land that the CPR had found necessary to grow food on, as I wrote above, just south of that tunnel.

Back a long time ago, I came from a land and an era when if one didn’t grow their own food, they would become very, very hungry indeed.

Until some Hatters – along with many others – learn that all those apples, plums, crab apples, etc., left on the trees or bushes to rot or feed deer… Well, until people are ready and willing to pick and use them, they really must not be having as bad a time with the rise in food costs as they claim.

Ted Kohlmetz

Medicine Hat (River Ridge SV)

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