Saturday, August 20, 2011

The Green Thing

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?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We used to die of certain diseases because medical science hadn't advanced enough to heal or prevent them...

We used to enslave people like chattel because we thought others were less-than-human....

We used to travel for months in stifling heat, frigid cold and all kinds of elements.....

We used to think the world was flat....

We used to think the sun revolved around the earth - not the other way around.....

And the point of this is....

And how many of these things do YOU do?

Anonymous said...

I do appreciate the content of the blog, but like the first "Anonymous" wrote, those good-ol-days were not all that good. Women and children could be and many were abused without any official protection. DDT poisoned the food supply and all surrounding areas. There were lynchings. There was slavery in marriage. Sexual harrassment was acceptable. This list could go on and on. Personally, i am hoping that our individual ability to document what is happening around the world, via internet and cell phone and other electronic gagets will protect us from going back to those good-ol-days. I say, let's look to today, to tomorrow, to integrity in all things, to equality, to kindness and respect. Thank you for this forum!