Checking out at the store, the YOUNG cashier suggested to the much
older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic
bags are not good for the environment !
The woman apologized to the young girl 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."
The older lady said that she was right "our generation didn't have
the "green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain:
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 books 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.
Very true, we didn't have the green thing back then, yet looking back we were greener. This world has become an inversion of what it once was.
The "green" thing. (Part 2 of 3)
But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.
We drank from a fountain or a reusable thermos when we were thirsty instead of using a plastic 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 blade in a r azor 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 in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a
whole house did before the"green thing." 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?
The "green thing". (Part 3 of 3)
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
engines and burn gasoline or electric just to cut and edge the lawn. We used a push mower and a manual edger 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. And we didn't have the need for electric powered alarm systems because we didn't even lock our doors. We didn't need them because people respected other people's personal property and had better morals back then.
Yes we didn't have the green thing back then..we didn't need it because we weren't the generation of entitlement and unending consumerism we see today.