Being
Green
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 young 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 household garbage bags, was
the use of brown paper bags as book covers for
our schoolbooks. 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 throwaway 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 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 smartass young
person...
We don't like being old in
the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss
us off. |
+8I used to be the one who got to turn the soil for planting at my Papa Joe's farm----- he had an old mule named Jack who pulled that plow------- I pushed as hard as I could
Bet that silly cashier had a nose piercing, lip piercing and darth vader makeup.
We did what we could and concerved what we could!