We Didn't Have The "Green Thing" Back Then

A friend shared this article with me from where, I do not know.  It really made me think and took me back.

I remember all the non-green things we did "back then."   On the fourth of July, we didn't have AC in the house so we celebrated out under an oak tree and ate food hand-made by our mothers and grandmothers.

Fathers and Grandfathers kept an eye on the watermelons cooling in the spring that ran not too far from our oak.  And the younger were hand-cranking ice cream to go with those home-made pies and cakes later.

I don't like the way America is heading right now and I pray a time comes again when a hand shake is as good as a contract like it used to be.

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized 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."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the 'green thing’ in our day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store and we got 3 cents per Coke bottle.  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 diaper because we didn't have the throw away kind.  We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 5000 watts/hour -- 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 if any at all, 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 (and wrapped it in brown paper bags).

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 street car 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 more than twice 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. We ate our burgers at home.

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 tick us off...  Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced someone who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

Thank You, for letting be blow off a little steam.