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?
We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't
take much to really piss us off... especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced
smart-ass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how
much. — with Molly Day.
Well said Molly Day…well said!!!!!!!
