Post by Gay J Oliver on Mar 17, 2012 11:27:07 GMT
The green thing
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older
woman that she should bring her own shopping 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 cashier 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, pop 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. 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 in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every shop
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 nappies 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 county of Yorkshire .
In the blankets, 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 post, 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 petrol 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 water from a fountain or a tap when we were thirsty instead
of demanding a plastic bottle flown in from another country. We
accepted that a lot of food was seasonal and didn’t expect that to be
bucked by flying it thousands of air miles around the world. We
actually cooked food that didn’t come out of a packet, tin or plastic
wrap and we could even wash our own vegetables and chop our own salad.
But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the tram or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to
school or walked instead of turning their mothers 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 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 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.
Remember: Don't make old people mad. We don't like being old in the
first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.