Val Hymes remembers the first Earth Day After 35 years, the memory is still fresh.  I was a young mother and reporter in Maryland, writing a column on state government and covering news for an all-news radio station, WTOP in Washington.  It was 1970.   I was asked to be on a program for the first Earth Day with U.S. Senator Gaylord A. Nelson, the founder of Earth Day; the CBS Washington Bureau Chief, Bill Headline, and Alf Goodykoontz, editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and a regional director of the Society of Professional Journalists. I was a mere chapter president of the Society. I was impressed.   I got through it, somehow, telling about a press junket to New York State to view a nuclear power plant -- and how we, the press, also polluted the environment by riding in jets, buses with noisy police escort, eating and drinking out of plastic and paper, etc.   It was not until last year that I realized that I am related to Senator Nelson. His mother was a Bradt. My full name is Valerie Bradt Hymes.  We both belong to the Bradt Society.   I was honored that day in 1970. I am even more honored that my cousin started this important event that has captured me and my sons, and I hope, their sons and their sons' sons.    -- Val Hymes, member, Washington, DC and Maryland chapters, Society of Professional Journalists. Editor, Prison Ministry Network News.