Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested
to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because
plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this
green thing back in my earlier days."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your
generation did not care enough to save our environment for future
generations."
She 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.
Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags,
that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides
householdgarbage 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. 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 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 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.
We don't like being old in the first place, so it
doesn't take much to **** us off.
