That "Green Thing"

[mcgovern61]

Checking out at the store … the young cashier suggested to me, that I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

I 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 factory to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so we 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.

 

[mcgovern61]

We drank from a water 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 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 mouthed young person... who really doesn't know how good they've got it now.

We don't like being old or growing old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to tick us off...especially from a multiple pierced smart mouth, who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

 

[backlander]

Amen, brother.

 

[Tory]

We went to our local watering holes,churchs,cruize nights......for our social life instead of getting it on a electric computer connected to the World Wide Web. :smilie_happy:

 

[cooltech]

well played

 

[Bobo]

A comment on this topic by a certified comedic genius, and hardly a conservative....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw

 

[slabghost]

And we ate at home. Foods grown in our gardens and prepared in our kitchens. Instead of running to this or that greasy spoon.

 

[dan filipi]

Mom cooked us dinner every night.
If we didn't eat before it got cold guess what, We ate COLD food.

 

[brianinpa]

Mom cooked us dinner every night.
If we didn't eat before it got cold guess what, We ate COLD food.

Would that a form of child abuse today?

 

[AApple]

+1 on ALL of the above....
Child abuse? In the 50's-'60s? You gotta be kiddin! Iffin we messed up in skool, we got a beatin at skool...and another un when we got home. I remember my Dad telling the Principal at my elementary skool to "beat his little ass until it bleeds".... :shock:
(Thanks Dad! :whip: )

There is a news event happening locally about a gurl in a high skool that got "spanked" at skool by a male staff member. It's one of the biggest damn stories around, just because it was a male that did the paddling. The gurl had been given detention for some reason, but after a couple of days, she wanted to use the option of taking a spanking instead.....which was her right. Now she's crying about it(actually, it's her mother doing most of the whining).
I tell you whut...these dang kids tuday........... :rant:

 

[1burthabutt]

We only had one vehicle, and dad carpooled. Mom only went to the store once a week. If we didn't have it we just did without OR asked the neighbor to borrow it. I remember a party phone and if someone was to go into town, they would call everyone and ask if something needed to be picked up. Used newspaper instead of papertowels to clean or soak things up. Had cloth napkins instead of paper. Need I go on? Yup we were not green. Just lived a good life being simple!

 

[danf]

I remember paper drives, remember that... They made it a compitition to see who could gather up the most newspapers...I made a living on coke bottles...We set up bowling pins manually up at the church that had a bowling alley.. Played until 9pm sometimes later...Full service filling stations, I can still hear Grandma saying fill it up with ethol please..They checked the oil and washer fluid..Air your tires...We had the best Ice cream truck guys that came up our street, Soft serve, cones, banana splits even...Good stuff, we had a fruit man too.. That's right a fruit man..Fruit and veggies hanging off his truck...Mom would send us out for a sack of potoatoes or whatever.. And we would have to be dieing to go to a doctor..Never ever ever did we see one....Or a dentist either...Wasn't until i was earning my own until I went to get my teeth filled. :shock: . My gosh...I'm sure there were many of us like that back then now we see the denist every six months :shock: And I still hate it... :smilie_happy: