ARC99
Member Since: 19 Feb 2013
Location: North Yorkshire
Posts: 1831
 
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I have just received this from a friend and I know how the old lady felt.
It may appeal to those of a certain age.
Sorry its so long.
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment.
The woman apologized to the young girl 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."
The older lady said that she was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain: 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 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 school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling’s. 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 throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220volts. 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 blade 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 ass young person.
We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to  us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much. Don't make old people mad.
We don't like being old in the first place,
so it doesn't take much to us off.
Richard
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27th Feb 2015 12:13pm |
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sharkey964
Member Since: 05 Oct 2014
Location: On a muddy track
Posts: 574
 
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Very good. 
I could'nt agree more with everything in that piece.
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27th Feb 2015 12:34pm |
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Venomator
Member Since: 25 Aug 2014
Location: Peterborough
Posts: 2087
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27th Feb 2015 1:14pm |
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gilarion
Member Since: 05 Dec 2013
Location: Wales
Posts: 5110
 
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I like the green thing  Where I live the refuse collection guys will not come up my track to collect my four wheelie bins all of different colours  So I have to wheel them down to the end of the track which is exhilarating,  on wet days when I get soaked to the skin doing so even more so when its icy and I slip on my arse with a wheelie bin tipping over it becomes even more fun.
But what pleases me the most about being green is that after I have wheeled the bins down to the end of the track often some kind green minded ramblers will place there rubbish in one of my bins, plastic bottles and the like and usually in the the wrong coloured one so that when the refuse guys look into it they will not empty the bin and instead place a sticker on the lid saying ‘can’t empty due to the wrong type of rubbish being in the bin’. Oh the joys of being green.  For those who like Welsh Mountains and narrow boats have a look at my videos and photos at..
http://www.youtube.com/user/conwy1
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27th Feb 2015 2:25pm |
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