Nikocarol Loc: NM & FL

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.

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. 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 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 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?




We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to
tick us off.

Bill MN Loc: Western MN

Amen :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Penny MG Loc: Fresno, Texas

You sure got that right! Amen!!!! :thumbup:

SPYBALL-1 Loc: Montréal

Ahhh...but we do have the green thing, it's called money. They don't, it's called debt.

SPYBALL-1 Loc: Montréal

Ahhh...but we do have the green thing, it's called money. They don't, it's called debt.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

Hear! Hear! Hear!

ole sarg Loc: south florida

Not only that we walked 5 miles to school up hill both ways!

Drigby1 Loc: American Fork, UT

The cashier thought he/she was being helpful but wasn't. The younger crew sometimes can't see it, because of their inexperience and youth. After teaching for 30 years, I retired and I have now chosen to work in a grocery store. It is our policy to treat the shoppers as guests. Being this brazen to tell a guest what they should do would be frowned upon.
We did save a lot more energy than now. Muscle power and returning items is much more green than green.