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Being Green
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much 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 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 that the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?
Know 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...especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.
olddots
(10,237 posts)Not only a fantastic rant after my own heart but you pointed out something very important =every generation thinks they are the best generation that ever existed but that's just how dopey we humans are .
My kids (now 28 &31) hated me when I covered their school books with grocery store bags because we should have driven to the mall to buy pre fab book covers that you couldn't even draw on .
Iwillnevergiveup
(9,298 posts)I LOVED watching my mother cover my schoolbooks with brown paper - she was a PRO. Neat, tight, and no tape used so you could stick folded up papers in the flaps. Of course, they had to be replaced a couple times during the school year because of bad weather, spills and plenty of doodling!
Iwillnevergiveup
(9,298 posts)diaper service! Oh my, oh my, those fluffy, fresh-smelling diapers that arrived every week were heavenly. Easier on babies bottoms, too.
marzipanni
(6,011 posts)until he was using his potty chair. Having washed diapers for 4 kids, she knew it would be the best present!
Just for the heck of it, I looked up the one we used- Yelp reviews not too good- must have changed owners. Another diaper service, serving the nearby S.F. Bay, area has glowing reviews.
ConcernedCanuk
(13,509 posts).
.
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yep - we did that too . . . . .
also biked, or walked the mile and a half to school,
only being driven on the worst wintry days,
walked with good rain suits in the summer,
and so on.
Thanks for the memories.
CC
ConcernedCanuk
(13,509 posts).
.
.
yep - we did that too . . . . .
also biked, or walked the mile and a half to school,
only being driven on the worst wintry days,
walked with good rain suits in the summer,
and so on.
Thanks for the memories.
CC
rpannier
(24,329 posts)on edit:
When I'm in the states and I run into one of those annoying jackasses I tell them, "Wait. I have change," and hand them the coins, so they have to give me change that's different than what's on the register. A few of them have given me stupid looks.
Like change on a $66.38 purchase is that difficult when I change from 70.00 to $70.38
fglad
(25 posts)Squinch
(50,950 posts)was saying she was fine with herself using plastic bags because "we didn't have the green thing back in my earlier days."
This isn't a case where "your generation is responsible, not mine" is an appropriate response from anyone, old or young. Because we're talking about all generations being possibly wiped out by our delays, avoidance and finger pointing.
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)Ptah
(33,030 posts)Love Canal
But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.
Lead paint
But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.
rpannier
(24,329 posts)I'd likely argue they didn't know.
Aristus
(66,380 posts)The Cuyahoga River is no longer catching on fire the way it did in the 50's and 60's. People living in LA can actually see the San Gabriel Mountains on more days per year than at any time since the 1940's. People get outraged by oil spills now, instead of shrugging and saying: "Oh well; the price of doin' bidness!"
Somebody back then was treating our environment like a rest stop bathroom, and it wasn't young people...