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Larry S
10-17-2014, 04:11 PM
Just had to share this. IMHO, it's brilliant.




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 220volts. 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 oldnewspapers 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 tick us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smart ass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.


No disrespect intended.
Best to all,
Larry S

SeanO
10-17-2014, 04:17 PM
Good one!!

Baja Fly Fisher
10-17-2014, 06:23 PM
This reminds me of my boyhood. Every thing mentioned was right on! And the thing is I survived those early years
One thing that's almost the same today, I still walk to the grocery store, it's about a 1.5 mile walk - mainly for exercise
Let's see, what else was done WAAAAAAY back then

Jay

Fly Guy Dave
10-18-2014, 12:38 PM
And I bet I'd be the guy in line behind the old lady when she explained this whole thing to the young cashier! ;)

Garfly
10-19-2014, 11:24 AM
Ha!!----Yep, FlyGuyD....and you'd probly be in a hurry also....capitalism promotes planned obsolescence,perceived obsolescence,etc...(planned is where your computer will not function without new upgrades) or NOT AT ALL,since all the new systems are to make you have to get a new one when the other one is fine....same with chargers on battery devices,etc,etc...///perceived ob....is where you feel you gotta get a "new one"/car,etc...like the Jones's.....corporations are far to willing to promote these strategies.....this old Lady WAS GREEN before green was cool or thought about,OR NEEDED....

I also like the one where the two old ladies conversing in a "foreign language' at the grocery store in AZ...are told that if you cant speak "merican" to leave the country and go back home, or learn to speak "merican"----These ladies politely state that they are Native Americans and that he is correct...that he should pack up and go.....or something like that....Ha!---