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.
When I use a shopping cart, I *never* pop out the seat and use it for small items for exactly that reason.
Whadya mean, “older FReepers?” LOL
We keep hand sanitizer in the car, and I dose up after every Walmart run, given the mess that place is always in....
My mother saved aluminum foil, plastic bags, and ESPECIALLY wrapping paper. I can still see her painstakingly opening a gift so as to not tear the pretty paper.
Paper doesn't grow on trees you know
Some stores have the option of paper, but you have to ask for them.
Actually, I save the gift bags that we get and re-use them. A close friend of mine and I have been sending each other the same few gift bags for quite a few years now. We laugh because one has a cartoon character on it and we still use it for the older kids. Who cares what’s on the front of a gift bag... they want to see what is INSIDE! I guess a penny saved...
Yes, and it was a good discussion!
We had a "ragman" when I was little. He came through with a horse and cart. His horse was gray and named Dolly.
“3/4 of shopping carts have traces of fecal matter, most of it from infants.”
And this whole time I thought it was someone’s chocolate ice cream that melted.
I came from a family that did that too. We would even straighten nails and reuse them if they weren’t too rusty.
I have a button box. It’s an old cookie tin. And I have black and white thread on my desk. With needles already threaded. :-)
Hey!! I resemble that remark, except I use strips of old tee shirts to tie the plants to the stakes.
Do you remember the paper “sleeves” for a half gallon of ice cream so it wouldn’t melt before you got home? When did stores stop doing that?
That’s right. Use it up, wear it out, and make it do. That was how we recycled, and we still do.
You are absolutely right about the self-righteous “recyclers” these days. A lot of that green and blue bin stuff goes straight to the landfills anyway. Companies find that it’s too expensive to pay someone to sort trash that is virtually worthless.
As do I.
My wife and I talk about this sort of thing from time to time.
When we were kids, we were “green” before it was cool. Not so much to save the environment, but for simple economic reasons.
Of course that was before it was known that the free market system couldn’t possibly work, either. :)
A cute article, but not without its inaccuracies.
For instance, a modern LCD HD television with a ‘screen the size of Montana’ uses only a small fraction of the electricity necessary to power one of those early CRT units with its ‘screeen the size of a handkerchief’.
Mine is an old cookie tin, also. My mother had a gorgeous one...royal blue...a cookie tin also.
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