Thanks to Nimra for this...
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 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 elevator, much less 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 our
clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from
their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new things.
But that young lady was 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 peanuts, 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 piss
us off... especially from tattooed, multiple pierced smartasses who can't
make change without the cash register telling them how much.
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