Posted on 05/01/2016 10:02:08 AM PDT by B4Ranch
My mother's birthday is tomorrow; she would have been 88. She is singing in the other world. I am truly grateful for this post; thank you.
Pretty story.
Kinda along the same lines of how things used to be. Kinda lengthy but you gotta agree with most if not all of it. Got it from a post on Mrs. rktmans facebook page. And yes, I remember having a “party line” when living in Carmel Valley in the 50’s. LOL! I especially like the last paragraph.
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.
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 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?
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... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who can’t make change without the cash register telling them how much.
Ya-gotta-read-this-one ping.
My screen got blurry...
The last bit of that story seems kinda blurry. My “information please” lady was our librarian.
She was always there to answer any questions, and she always knew the perfect book for that awkward little kid. Mrs. Griffith blessed generations of children. I was devastated to hear she passed after a protracted battle with Alzheimer’s. I pray there are libraries in heaven, and they are the wholesome places they once were.
I've got a favorite saying: When I die and go to Heaven, all I'll need is my books, and my flavored coffee, and I'll be happy.
Black telephones are racist.
#black_telephones_lives_matter
Serioisly it’s a nice story.
And your favorite ‘flavor’ of music. Mine happens to be classical. Books, coffee, music...yep sounds like heaven.
That last sentence certainly is the truth.
Yup. Takes a while to get to it but it sure rings true. Then, even when they know the total, they have a hard time counting it out.
Lessee now, the boy has managed to defy gravity and is now suspended in midair while he cranks the telephone. The cat is amazed at the boy’s supernatural powers.
Or is this “Superboy II: The Beginning”?
;^)
Google please.
Thanx for the story.
5.56mm
‘Information plee-uz.’
“Hi, I’m Siri. Let me Google that for you.”
Books and coffee sounds good to me. You can have all my flavors—I prefer it black and strong.
So cool. Touching story amid the rank stupidity of this election season.
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