The "green thing".....
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older
woman,
that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't
good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing
back
in my earlier days."
The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your
generation did
not care enough to save our environment for future generations."
She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles
to the
store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized
and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.
So they REALLY were recycled!
But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused
for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags,
was the
use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to
ensure that public property, (the book provided for our use by the
school)
was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our
books on the brown paper bags.
But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store
and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't
climb into a
300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.
But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the
throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy
gobbling machine
burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our
clothes back
in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or
sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that young lady is right;
we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every
room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember
them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the
kitchen, we blended
and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do
everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the
mail, we used
wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic
bubble wrap.
Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the
lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by
working
so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that
operate
on electricity.
But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a
cup or a
plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled
writing pens
with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor
blades in
a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the
blade got
dull.
But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their
bikes to
school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi
service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank
of sockets to
power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to
receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in
order to
find the nearest burger joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old
folks
were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person
who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person...
We don't like being old in the first place,
so it doesn't take much to piss us off. :-)
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