John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

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 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 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.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I'm old enough to remember most of that, but I do bring my own reused bags to the grocery store, or to carry takeout food (we have to pay 10 cents for new bags here in California).

d3200prime

Yes, I get tickled and somewhat annoyed at the younger ones these days. They honestly believe they have discovered recycling and this "green thing". The truth is generations ago people in the USA were doing a great job at reusing and recycling. Its called being frugal and watching your pennies. The more things change the more they stay the same. Only today some entrepreneurs are making millions on this "green thing" and the young ones are to dumb to figure it out.

Erdos2 Loc: Vancouver, WA

You can add to the list that appliances (kitchen ones, tvs, radios, etc) were repaired rather than just replaced. Of course economics plays a part in this, but repair is more "green" than replace.

Amtrain

And we did not take a plastic bag to put a small item that would fit in our pocket. We put the item in our hand and walked out of the store.

What gets me is a clerk will bag something before I can stop them so I say, "Thats OK I do not want a bag." So what do they do? They take my item back out of the bag, pull the bag off the rack and immediately throw it in the trash can below the cash register.

RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas

I love it man, do i remember the REALLY GOOD OLD DAYS. Thanks for posting.

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

I think I'm still partly there? Did think about getting a 2nd TV to watch whilst exercising on the rower or the bike but usually wind up cycling down to the club and taking my canoe out.

firtree Loc: Florida, USA

And that is exactly why we need the "Green Thing" nowadays....somebody thought, "There has got to be an easier way to do this stuff."

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

And consider that environmentally, reuse is far better than recycling. Recycling is actually a manufacturing process that uses energy and raw materials and creates wastes. For example, recycling an aluminum can requires the can to be melted with contaminates removed; molding; cupping; assembling (lids and pop tops); and painting. Each step uses lots of energy and creates both hazardous and solid wastes. Reusing a bottle simply requires the bottle to be cleaned so it creates some easily managed wastewater. Our parents of WWII vintage grew up when raw materials were at a premium making reuse more cost effective than manufacturing new goods or even recycling. Now a days labor is the most expensive component of a product and there's less labor involved in new manufacture than there is in the reuse or recycling process...for now, anyway.

SkipGWV

At least we're not flushing as many film processing chemicals into the water now... 😉 Otherwise, the good old days had a definite green tint!

wakeupnfly Loc: wyandotte, Mi

You can't really get upset with the younger generation as this is how they grew up and it is refreshing to see that SOME of them are trying to do something to help the environment. While it is true that we did all of the "green" things while not calling them "green", it us older folks that were always striving for newest and most modern way to live. Remember that most of the convenient things came about after wwII. Bigger better TV's, more modern do everything appliances, TV dinners (whose containers got thrown out after use) huge cars with gas sucking engines and the refineries to feed them. Life was so easy and when you were done with the items they were just tossed! The result has been huge landfills, and poisoned land and water. Some of the younger generation are attempting to make it all better while still hanging onto the things that we gave to them when growing up. We had drive inns a phone booth almost always available. They have McDonalds and cell phones. Give 'em a break, they are trying.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Not so much being frugal as simply not having alternatives. Marketing experts realized that people would pay for convenience - the "convenience" of throw-away bottles, for example. So now we do NOT have any alternatives of reusing our milk bottles and beer bottles. And sadly, even in communities such as the one where I live where we have curbside recycling, most people are too damned lazy to bother to even recycle cans, bottles, and paper.

In the 70's I went to grad school at Penn State - there was a big family-owned dairy near where I lived that actually sold milk in glass jars that you would bring back for reuse. It was great.

In rural Maine we had a system that I think should be replicated throughout the country. We had to pay for trash but not to recycle "trash". You had to bring your trash to the transfer station in bags that cost $2 each. You could bring anything for recycling - separated into types - at no cost. THAT really motivates people to recycle. Maine also instituted a bottle deposit many years ago. It has been very, very successful - you do not see bottles and cans along the roads anywhere, and most do get returned.

d3200prime

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Well written, funny and TRUE!! Thanks, John.
Mark

raymondh Loc: Walker, MI