Pooga
I got so ticked at the grocery store when the young cashier suggested I should bring the cloth germ carriers they call grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. I get a bit cranky when a kid with no life experience that has elevated herself to the lofty level of cashier decides to 'inform' me but if you dare say "We didn't have all this 'green' foolishness back in my earlier days." they get snarky and say "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.
"But she was right – our generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop 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 householdgarbage 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 elevator or escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the corner grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go halfway across town to the superstore that closed all the corner groceries. 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 Prince Edward Island. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
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. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
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. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
We refilled writing pens with new ink cartridges 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, because we didn't have the green thing back then.
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?