Posted on 09/03/2025 1:27:42 PM PDT by CodeToad
Here is a wonderful little story
A young cashier told an older woman that she should bring her grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized, "We didn't have this green thing back in my day."
The young clerk said, "Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."
She gave him a firm stare and a hard grin and said “Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles, and beer bottles. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over. They were recycled. Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, which we reused for numerous things. We walked upstairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power did dry our clothes back in our day. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. The TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief, 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.
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 with a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
Back then, people took a bus and kids rode their bikes 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 in space to find the nearest burger joint.
But the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing.”
The cashier stood there still and quiet as the old lady found her wallet to pay. Then lady turned to leave but stepped back and turned toward the cashier. She said “You have a world of knowledge in that little device in your hand. Pity you just use it to gossip, take pictures, and waste time. It would do you good to search a bit of history before you embarrass yourself like this again.
the world has changed, I personally do not like the direction we are all headed in but I think these feelings happen everyone in almost every generation.
Today may be a little different
Back then there were only half the population than there is now and western civilization didn’t desire to invite third world violent conquerors to destroy it.
No generation likes change, and with every generation there is some positive progress, but I never thought stupidity and ignorance would be so persuasive given the Internet and information at our fingertips.
Late 50s, and early 60s were America’s best days.
Look at pics of LA circa 1962 when it was a beautiful modern city. Boy, they sure crashed that party. Those running government did a great job of destroying it. Other U.S. major cities as well were beautiful. Now most big cities are nasty dumps.
We have the ability to access more information quicker than ever and are dumber for it.
awesome!
The world’s population has more than tripled in my lifetime, and there are a lot of FReepers older than I am.
Agree..when life was good.
I checked. We have four times as much gross domestic product per person in 2024 as we had in 1950.
Our wealth per person in the USA has quadrupled, mostly because we have advanced enormously technologically.
My grandparents ran their farm with horse and human power.
They did not have electricity until about 1950. No engines to cut firewood in northern Wisconsin for their farm, before 1950.
We live in a golden age, and people complain about it.
“...when life was good”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Life has never been this good for so many people. Unfortunately individuals choose do do stupid things and don’t take advantage of the modern world offerings.
I do have to make an observation after 85 years. I watched the people shopping at COSTCO recently and they were a grungy bunch. Yet their cars and SUVs in the parking lot were in first class condition. All were new and clean. There were no dents, rust or dangling mufflers to be seen.
In the 50’s that wasn’t the norm.
Now people impress others with what they drive; not what they wear.
“We live in a golden age, and people complain about it.”
He of material wealth, and a prime example of information at our fingertips but of little intelligence or wisdom.
Real figures of both GDP, inflation, and population means the GDP per person in 1955 was $2,581, but today it is $2,469 in 1955 dollars.
We have less wealth per person. We also require two incomes to accomplish what one did in 1955.
Better technology exists today, sure, glad to have it, but do not try to say we are wealthier for it. That is NOT true.
“They did not have electricity until about 1950.”
Never read a history, eh? Information at your fingertips, yet, you continue to make false statements of history.
“They did not have electricity until about 1950.”
Lots of people in the USA did not have electricity until after 1950.
Perhaps I could have been more clear.
Then the environmentalists demanded that we stop using plastic bags because they were bad for the environment and that we should use paper ones instead.
It doesn't pay to get too old because it becomes new again.
Real figures of both GDP, inflation, and population means the GDP per person in 1955 was $2,581, but today it is $2,469 in 1955 dollars.
I used the stlouisfed.org site for gdp per capita. They have several, I don’t see exactly the same one, but they list constant dollar gdp as going up more than four-fold from 1960 to 2024 at this site:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/NYGDPPCAPKDUSA
Today’s youth, by and large, have learned nothing from real-world, life experiences.
Instead, they have a phone that tells them what to do and what to think.
In 1974, I rented a one bedroom house for 125 a month. We had a baby, moved to a two bedroom house the next year and paid 150. When Ford moved into Nixons spot, we had a near depression and the printing presses came out. $35T in debt. 40T in 2 years, bet on it. $50T in 2030 EZ.
My daughter moved into a house in Jackson in 2002. There was a functioning refrigerator with a freezer that was a U shaped thing in the top of the unit and it froze what she put into it and it had only one door. That refrigerator had been made in the fifties or maybe before. No modern appliance lasts anything like that long.
Because acquiring informatioin takes no efffort, just rapid thumbs.You forget it all in seconds because it is just a flash on a screen.
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