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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment