The Green Thing
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the 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 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 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.
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, way back when some us really older geezers lived, we did not have inside
toilets. We walked out back, rain or shine, and sat on a cold wood seat and took care
of business. We thought that sort of stinky stuff needed to be kept out of the house so it
would not require loads of water and polluting chemicals and sprays to be able to tolerate it.But, of course, we primitives back then did not do the green thing.
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 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?
Remember:
Don't make old People mad!
We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't
take much to tick us off.
