WE DIDN'T HAVE "THE GREEN THING" !!!

WE DIDN'T HAVE
"THE GREEN THING" !!!

 

( Boy, now this is some truth, right here…  You tell her, Granny!!  /dt )

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.