this isnt new but

[FootbalYouBet]

just in case there is any younger person reading who doesnt get it

The Green Thing Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days." The clerk responded, "That's our problem today" Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.

She 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.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that were used 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 scribbling. 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 escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time w e 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 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 burger joint. But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we older folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish older person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smartass young person. We don't like being older in the first place, so it doesn't take much to **** us off.

[GoRiders]

Seen this before


The real problem is the consumerist culture that has been created

[jman_135]

I was only able to get one thing from this piece of reading. FYB, you are old.

[Sportsmen]

But you know, FYB is right, I am showing my age too! I remember the glass milk bottles, you bought Milk tokens and left them in the empties. My kids were all in cloth diapers, We had TWO Clothelines to dry clothes. My son's neighbour has one of those push mowers might of been the one I sold 25 years ago!....(His yard is very small and it works for him).

[backer@oldclarke]

But you know, FYB is right. I remember the glass milk bottles; you bought Milk tokens and left them in the empties.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodysworl ... 446100439/
When I was a kid living in Calgary my Mom had milk delivered by the Alpha Milk Co. Tokens as shown in the link above.

[jman_135]

Times are changing my friends.

[the_guy]

Interesting post. However, it is answering a smart ass by being a smart ass.

All the stuff you didn't have back in "the day" that forced you to have less impact on your environment was the same stuff that motivated your generation (and others) to invent the stuff you are critical of "those darn kids these days" of naively taking for granted. You walked because (probably, I speak from my experience) a household could only afford one car. If you owned a car it was probably put more crap in the air than two cars today. You used glass and paper because there was no plastic option. You didn't recycle. You returned stuff for money. And the little screen on your tv burned way more power than the big flat screen the kid has. You sprayed asbestos in the ceilings and painted lead in every corner. This isn't your fault. You didn't know any better. The young grocery bagger doesn't either. All I am saying is: You can't blame any generation for being the problem or give credit to any generation for owning the solution.

Don't get me wrong, the kid was a little @$$hole but he was a kid spewing what he has been told is true. The old generation is no more responsible for our environmental problems than these kids are for fixing the problem.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is: Use the self checkout next time.