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 re-used 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 smart-ass young person.
We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.
Reading this just really makes sense!! I don't think I'm old, only 32, but I remember doing those things when I was younger.
My grandmother (not "blood", but family) in upstate NY use to save her soda bottle, soda cans and other plastic containers and cans during the year. When I would go up there in the summer, she would take me up to the little store in town and I would trade everything in for money. That was the money I got to use during the summer. I remember riding the bike up the big hill next to the Adirondack Lake just to go into town and go to Stewart's for some root beer. She didn't drive me all around.
And I LOVED using the brown paper bags as my book covers... of course I had to change them every 2wks because I couldn't keep a cover that said "I heart Billy" when my new crush's name was John lol - I doodled clouds, balloons, rainbows, flowers, hearts... Totally girly/dreamy looking.
And the water fountains... my kids look at me like I'm nuts if I tell them to get a drink out of the fountain when we are in Wal-Mart and they want something to drink LOL Hello!! You're going to the bathroom anyway, swing by the water fountain and grab some lol
Anyway! I just wanted to share this b/c I completely get it and agree with it!
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