THOUGHTS ON BEING "GREEN"

We forget some things but they're still true! Sometimes

young people just don't know what they're talking about!

Everything that's listed in response to the checkout

clerk's statement is true; I know, I lived it.

 THE GREEN THING

 

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to

the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery 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 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 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 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.

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 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 smartass young

person.

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't

take much to piss us off.