In the line at the store,
the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag
because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized to
him and explained, “We didn't have the Green thing back in my day.”
The clerk responded,
"That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."
He was right, that
generation didn't have the green thing in its day...
Back then, they returned
their 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 they didn't have the
green thing back in that customer's day.
In her day, they walked up
stairs, because they didn't have an escalator in every store and office
building.
They walked to the grocery
store and didn't climb into a 300- horsepower machine every time they had to go
two blocks.
But she was right.
They didn't have the green
thing in her day.
Back then, they washed the
baby's diapers because they didn't have the throw-away kind.
They dried clothes on a
line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts, wind and solar
power really did dry the clothes.
Kids got hand-me-down
clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that old lady is
right, they didn't have the green thing back in her day.
Back then, they 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, not a screen the size of the state of Connecticut.
In the kitchen, they
blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines to do
everything for you.
When they packaged a
fragile item to send in the mail, they used a wadded up old newspaper to
cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, they didn't
fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn..
They used a push mower
that ran on human power.
They exercised by working
so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on
electricity.
But she's right, they
didn't have the green thing back then…
They drank from a fountain
when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time
they had a drink of water.
They refilled their
writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor
blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the
blade got dull.
But they 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 rode the school bus
instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.
They had one electrical
outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.
And they didn't need a
computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out
in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
But isn't it sad the
current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they
didn't have the green thing back then?
By the way,
Back
when I was a kid – mid 50’s, whenever I went fishing or hunting, I
took a paper grocery bag with me (this was pre-plastic bags), so I could pick
up other people’s trash and bring it home with me to help clean up the
environment. The “environmental movement” was still years into the future.
Amazing what a little common sense does, huh.
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