Hard to believe but so much is true............
The Green Thing
In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she
should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't
good for the environment.
The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have
the green thing back in my day."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation
did not care enough to save our environment."
He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
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.
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 the
clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their
brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that old 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 a wadded up old newspaper 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 streetcar or a bus and kids rode
their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms
into a 24-hour taxi service.
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?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who
needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person.