Posted on 07/27/2011 7:01:13 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952
Sent with nostalgia...
The Green Thing
In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."
He 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.
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 the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that old 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 a wadded up old newspaper 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 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza 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 smartass young person.
Uh-oh...I remember doing most of this too. Does that make me a selfish old person? :-)
an asu study showed that the canvas bags are bacteria laden.
apparently most people do not launder them.
and shopping carts have lots of bacteria.
3/4 of shopping carts have traces of fecal matter, most of it from infants.
I would have called for the general manager and made a huge scene and demanded an apology from the clerk.
LLS
Whatever happened to paper grocery bags?
We must forgive the cashier.
Public schools - ergo, dumb, narcissistic, probably voted for the Cretin, and totally unaware of any technology past pushing the text buttons on her cell phone or computer.
That's because you are nice and civilized. Some would have had the urge to hit the clerk with their cane or walker... :-)
Just had a discussion about this the other day. We saved bags and tinfoil, rubberbands, anything that could be cleaned and reused. Now kids throw it in a special trash can and think they’re great because they’re recycling. They don’t know what recycling is!
SOOO true. I told my husband the other day - Boy Scouts were conservationists long before liberals made it their mantra (so they could tax us for it)
The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."
LoL! When I read this part I knew this had to be a parable. I worked for a grocery store back in my college days. You learned quickly not to be a smart a$$ with the senior citizens, they didn't take one bit of crap and they could and would get you in trouble. If this conversation had occurred, the old lady would have chewed the cashier up one side and down the other, told him she would use whatever bag she darn well pleased and then complained to management and had all her friends do the same until the cashier was reprimanded or fired.
We didn’t have Jerry Springer back then, either
Now we have to pay to have them taken away.
I posted this for all the older FReepers to add to the list. Nah, we weren’t green at all.
Those went out in the name of ‘saving trees’. They FORCED us into plastic and NOW they’re wanting us to bring in our own burlap bags...
And no one evev mentioned the special recycling of the Sears and Roebuck catalog.
Give me a few more years! ;-)
LLS
All your cousins lived within walking distance so you could easily get to all those "hammidowns". And yes, we all did walk to school and we walked home for lunch made by Mom -you knew when it was noon when the 12 o'clock whistle blew.
We sewed our socks. There was always a needle in the curtain over the sink.....for emergencies.
My FIL (rest his soul) grew up during the Depression and he was a SAVER. I think the funniest thing he ever did was what we called “the underwear tomato garden”. He had planted about fifteen tomato plants and needed something to support them to a post. He had tons of old underwear (he had saved, of course) and used the waist bands to secure the plants. Some of the underwear was so old that the brands were unknown. He found that the plant was able to stretch and the undie band didn’t cut the plant. It was a comical sight to say the least. He saved rubber bands, any sort of grocery tie/bag, old socks, flour and sugar bags... pretty much everything.
We used the paper bags to drain homemade French Fries. I don’t think they even had Scott Towels back then.
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