Tuesday, July 18, 2017

The "Green Thing"

I saw this on Facebook, and wanted to share it with you all. I think some of my older readers especially will appreciate it! It made me laugh.

Enjoy.


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 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 blade in a r azor 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 a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

17 comments:

  1. Oh My Goodness this is so ME !
    I have lived and done all of what this post said, especially the last part.
    Also remember helping a cashier make change plus figure out the tax.

    cheers, parsnip, thehamish and fergus

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  2. Yup; that's just about it. And they have the bloody cheek to stuff their 'green agenda' down our throats as if they invented it.

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  3. Thankfully, a lot of this is still going on - at least here in Germany; I can't speak for other countries. We still return glass bottles to the shop which returns them to the plant, but there ARE way too many plastic bottles around here, too. I still do not have a car and either walk to where I need to be or take a bus. If I have the choice, I rather use stairs than an escalator or lift. There is exactly ONE TV in my house, and no dryer - my washing dries in the sun and fresh air next to my open bedroom windows.
    I do try to create as little waste as possible and nearly always bring my own shopping bags instead of relying on plastic ones from the shop. But so many products are packaged in plastic and cartons etc. today that it is difficult NOT to create waste.

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  4. That is great. It sums it all up nicely. The young take all these things for granted and go through the green thing by being made to feel guilty for being the ever-expanding market for the businesses which are relied upon to produce ever-expanding growth and production in the market. Modern economy stinks.

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  5. Close to the mark. But if you look deeper, we and our parents did some very bad things to animals and the environment without any check or balance.

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  6. I don't know if I qualify as "one of your older readers" as I am just a young lad of 63 but when I think of my Yorkshire childhood so much of the Facebook tale rings true. Thanks for sharing and good luck with the second interview! Come on Jennifer!

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  7. I'm new to your blog, but I do so agree with this post.

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  8. Recycling and thrift were natural to us as my parents came from the Depression and the rationing of WWII. Greed was thought to be bad and we were taught to appreciate what we had. Then the 80's came life changed dramatically.

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  9. I refuse to buy bottled water. I have one of those Brita pitchers that filters the water. It works just fine, over and over.

    Love,
    Janie

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  10. There are many variations on this theme but the one you have posted is very good.

    Alphie

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  11. So true but things were simpler in those days. I don't think anyone's to blame. These things just happen with time, aye?? It's known as progress, I guess. It made me smile though and it was nice to remember those simpler times.

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  12. Hello Jennifer :) this is true.
    Greetings Maria xx

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  13. This is all so true about the "old days" which really weren't that long ago. And you know me, I am one of your older readers, ha ha.

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