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OxQQme

(2,550 posts)
Mon May 15, 2017, 12:39 AM May 2017

The 'green' thing

Copied from my face page:

"
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 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 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.

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
The 'green' thing (Original Post) OxQQme May 2017 OP
Last line is the best. pangaia May 2017 #1
A big, fat K&R! CaliforniaPeggy May 2017 #2
And... mbusby May 2017 #3
Love it. Thanks for the post iluvtennis May 2017 #4
Meh. The kids, by and large, didn't vote for Trump Steven Maurer May 2017 #5
Let's Not Forget Newspaper Drives Leith May 2017 #6
Righteous! dchill May 2017 #7
Message deleted by DU the Administrators Silver Gaia May 2017 #8
Children began to be the tyrants, lostinhere May 2017 #9
So wait, why this hate against yuiyoshida May 2017 #10
One of the many down sides about growing old, sarge43 May 2017 #11

Steven Maurer

(455 posts)
5. Meh. The kids, by and large, didn't vote for Trump
Mon May 15, 2017, 02:23 AM
May 2017

It was the silent, older boomer, and older X generations that did.

So before you go bashing them for their naivety or a bit of overenthusiasm, remember that they at least knew a grifter when they saw one.

Also, don't forget for a second that in the 1970s, there were literally days where the smog was so thick you couldn't see, litter was everywhere, and rivers caught on fire.

"I blew out my flip flop, Stepped on a pop top; Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home." was because beaches were filled with trash.

Leith

(7,802 posts)
6. Let's Not Forget Newspaper Drives
Mon May 15, 2017, 02:27 AM
May 2017

We used to save up newspapers to take to the school when they held the drives. We'd fill up a semi. Shame on us for subscribing to the local paper.

We didn't have air conditioning or low-flow toilets, either. For some reason, every parking space in every parking lot had a curb at the end of it. We bragged about all the cylinders under the hood of our car, which was so powerful that it drank up 8 miles to the gallon! There was a thing called "in-season" when it came to produce because we weren't importing it via ship or airplane from around the world.

Gee. What were we thinking?!

lostinhere

(78 posts)
9. Children began to be the tyrants,
Mon May 15, 2017, 03:06 AM
May 2017

Children began to be the tyrants, not the slaves, of their households. They no longer rose from their seats when an elder entered the room; they contradicted their parents, chattered before company, gobbled up the dainties at table, and committed various offences against Hellenic tastes, such as crossing their legs. They tyrannised over the paidagogoi and schoolmasters. Kenneth John Freeman, 1907

So when did the 'current' generation begin?

yuiyoshida

(41,759 posts)
10. So wait, why this hate against
Mon May 15, 2017, 03:26 AM
May 2017

Tattoos and Piercings ?? Does this include Ear Rings? Hey what about Native tattoos, like my Hawaiian ancestors had?


What a person does to their OWN BODIES is none of your god damn business. I wonder how many ladies on DU have pierced ear rings?

sarge43

(28,939 posts)
11. One of the many down sides about growing old,
Mon May 15, 2017, 05:53 AM
May 2017

we don't usually live long enough to see those who mock old age grow old themselves. I wonder how they will react when they're told what a bunch of losers they are.

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