A friend sent me this and I had to share it.
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 truly 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 share this
on to with 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.
