The Green Thing

Is this something new, something that us older folk have to learn?, perhaps just a new name for old habits? What do you think?

Checking out at the supermarket, 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 day."     The young cashier responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation didn’t care enough to save our environment for future generations."  The older lady said that she was right – adding “our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day”. The older lady went on to explain:

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soft drink bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed, 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 (now they are a thing of the past!), bagged groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Besides household garbage bags, was using brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This ensured that public property (the books provided for us by the school) were not defaced by our doodling. We could 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 shops, or to the phone box and didn't climb into a car every time we had to go just down the street.  But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.

We washed baby's nappies because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 240 volts/200watts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our day. 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. The TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the study wall. 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  old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol 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 train or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or car, 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 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?   
 
If you agree, please tell this to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from some young smart ass .  We don't like getting old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off... especially from a young tattooed multiple pierced smartass who can't work out change without the cash register telling them how much !