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  • Bunnykid68

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    22   0   0
    Mar 2, 2010
    23,515
    83
    Cave of Caerbannog
    In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags 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. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."

    He 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 recycled.

    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 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 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; 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 a wadded up old newspaper 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 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 smartass young person
     

    Stschil

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Aug 24, 2010
    5,995
    63
    At the edge of sanit
    Doing my best to get back to some if that. Growing my own veggies and canning, etc. My new workshop/garage will run on solar and eventually, I hope, the whole house. I try very hard to fix things instead of trashing them and buying new, but I can't give up my internetz! :):
     

    IndySSD

    Master
    Rating - 100%
    8   0   0
    Jun 14, 2010
    2,817
    36
    Wherever I can CC le
    Great anecdote about the rampant ignorance and wanton waste that dominates a large number of young people's minds.... but lets be honest, if the guy giving the old woman crap about grocery bags had half a brain he wouldn't be ringing and sacking groceries for a living now would he?
     

    AZ Hunter

    Sharpshooter
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Jul 20, 2010
    620
    18
    Tucson, AZ
    Great anecdote about the rampant ignorance and wanton waste that dominates a large number of young people's minds.... but lets be honest, if the guy giving the old woman crap about grocery bags had half a brain he wouldn't be ringing and sacking groceries for a living now would he?

    Who said he was doing it for a living?:dunno: Why knock the guy for working the grocery line? He could be just some no nothing high school kid trying to earn a buck or some college student. Either way it's an email someone generated to send around the world to show how old timers saved the world....
     

    45fan

    Master
    Rating - 100%
    1   0   0
    Apr 20, 2011
    2,388
    48
    East central IN
    I was on the tail end of the glass bottle Cokes, but I remember them well. I also remember when even Gallons of milk came in a paper carton, instead of plastic. My family probably isnt the poster image of 0 carbon footprint, but we do make an effort to not be the eco-disaster that Al Gore tries to claim americans are today.
     

    indykid

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Jan 27, 2008
    11,877
    113
    Westfield
    I remember those days of returning glass bottles for refunds. Walking to the grocery store, and I remember watching the coal truck dump a load down the chute into my grandparent's basement so that my grandfather could keep the coal fire burning in the winter.

    Yep, we didn't fill up landfills with trash, but we sure filled the air with that black stuff from all those coal fired heaters!

    Growing up in New York City really is different than growing up in farm country Indiana!

    The above is sort of purple with a lot of reality. We have come a long way with clean air and clean water, which that cashier seems to have missed. That generation talked about later that used reusable bottles and other things did a terrible job of keeping the air and water clean. Reusable grocery bags are a great idea, but to berate someone for not using them is not seeing the whole picture.

    How many people on this site actually live close enough to a grocery store "two blocks" away?

    Again, lots of almost purple.
     
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