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LadyCitizen 01-12-2012 05:55 PM

Anyone over the age of 35 should read this
 
Checking out at the grocery store recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. I apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days." The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations." She was right about one thing -- our generation didn't have the green thing in “Our” day. So what did we have back then? After some reflection and soul-searching on "Our" day here's what I remembered we did have. 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 repeatedly. 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 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 bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We didn't have video games; we played outdoors...roller skating, riding bikes, played tag, baseball, tennis, went swimming at the local pool. Rainy days found us reading, drawing, coloring, playing jacks, learning to sew, knit, doing crafts. 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? This is for another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smarty-pants young person can add to this...

Rim05 01-12-2012 07:48 PM

Lady Citizen, it is so good to read a post that fits me to a Tee. There are times when I think about how times have changed. Just last week, I told some one that I wish I could live some of those depression days again.
As bad as they were, the store always had a paper bag to put the groceries in. :cool:

ilbegone 01-13-2012 04:42 AM

I use plastic grocery bags as trash bags. I suppose that is evil intent nowadays.

I don't get texting. I've seen people within easy conversation distance text one another, it seems that instead of imaginative play (and even adults should play from time to time) the majority of kids seem to constantly have their attention wrapped around the device in their hands - even while walking from point A to Point B.

Tiny screens from yesteryear? There are those who watch whole movies from the palms of their hands.

"Green" seems to me to be a con. Rooftop solar sells at an obscene markup, and solar panels are made in China - perhaps the most egregious industrial polluter in the world. "Green" is now pitched and sold in about the same heedless manner as "tough on crime", both with little thought and applied with the moral equivalent of swatting flies at the dinner table with a ball bat.

retiredat44 01-15-2012 01:18 PM

dam good post! :D

Rim05 01-16-2012 05:01 AM

This is amazing! Last week I was wondering where ilbegone had gone and suddenly he is back. I have wondered what happened to Retiredat44 and here he is.
Good to see both of you.
:)

Patriotic Army Mom 01-16-2012 04:05 PM

I raised my older children green before it ever was a word other then used for a crayola! They can stick their green goo up the the goo! It's called not being wasteful and wasteing money.

Illini Sky 01-16-2012 11:23 PM

Great post!!!


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