Treading lightly
Ithaca community creates alternative way of life
Written by Vanessa Schneider
Posted December 1, 2004
I. With wet, stringy hair fresh from a bath, a smiling blond 6-year-old looked forward to watching an Olsen twins’ movie before bed. But Sarah Strauss let it slip that she had watched television earlier that afternoon at a friend’s house.
“If I called Morgan right now and asked her how much of ‘The Little Mermaid’ you watched, would she say more than half? ” said Bill, Sarah’s father.
“Maybe, ” she said slowly.
Bill and Deanna, her mother, said no to a movie, so Sarah began to yell.
“I want to watch a movie! ” she said over and over, tears welling up in her eyes.
The Strausses are residents of EcoVillage at Ithaca, a community that practices cooperative living, energy efficiency and healthy eating. Bill and Deanna apply these practices to all areas of their lives, including Sarah and her 3-year-old sister Rachel’s television habits.
Bill reinforced his no, ignoring Sarah’s piercing screams, and asked her to pick out a book to read before bed. Sarah pouted while her mom and dad sat down at the oval dining room table. With a sneaky smile, Rachel sidled up next to Deanna and handed her “The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV. ”
“It’s funny, ” Bill said. “The people across the way, who let their kids eat mac ’n cheese and candy and who let them play computer games all day won’t let their children read ‘The Berenstain Bears.’ Too mainstream. ”
Bill’s a silly guy.
“You’re a copycat, ” he said.
“No, you’re a copycat, ” Rachel said.
“You’re a copycat, ” Bill said again.
“No, you’re a copycat, ” she said, changing her stern look into giggles.
Bill sports a scruffy face, graying hair and a friendly smile.
Like most people at EcoVillage, Bill grew up living the consumer-driven American dream, and rarely worried about the “other guy. ”
As a member of a cooperative community, however, Bill and his neighbors at EcoVillage strive to eat organic, drive their cars less, keep television away from their kids and have a support system close at hand. Each person contributes at least two hours of community work a week, like helping with meals in the Common House or working with the compost on site.
“People here are sick to death of what they see of the ‘me culture’ that is America, ” Bill said.
EcoVillage ideas also extend to the family’s eating habits. A yellow note pasted to the cluttered refrigerator door reminds the babysitter to give Sarah and Rachel a glass of water every hour. There are no bags of cheese puffs, no junk food drawer and definitely no Coca-Cola.
For dinner one night, Bill cooked lentil soup and a pot of white rice. The girls weren’t allowed to eat the rice, one of their favorites, until they finished their soup.
“Why don’t you let them have more white rice since we don’t have dessert? ” Bill said to Deanna, who makes most of the family’s health calls.
“White rice is their dessert, ” she said.
Greener Pastures
A look in pictures of the EcoVillage.
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