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I'm Old but this GREEN THING?

OldDog/NewTricks

Well-known member
Joined
May 24, 2005
Messages
3,443
Location
The Dam End of Silicon Valley
NOW I KNOW I AM GETTING OLD,,,,,, I REMEMBER THIS STUFF!!!!!


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. Nevertheless, 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. 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. Nevertheless, 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. Nevertheless, 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. Nevertheless, 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.

However, 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 smartass young person...


We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off
 
:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

And.....

We played outside with our friends instead of being driven to some kind of lessons we wouldn't want to take anyway. Our Moms grew gardens, and knitted and sewed. We had one family car. And we stood at the kitchen counter and talked with our Moms every day while we dried the dishes.
 
I remember that I mowed with a old reel mower so I saved gas.. I gad a old bike no tire on front but a wheel. I had 2 milk carton wired on the side to pick up beer 3cents pop bottles 2 cents I had a recycling business.. and no seat ..I never had new boots till I was 15 I worked for them...school lunches were $.25 so i took mine used the heel for sandwitches...milk was .02..them were good but hard times ...doing WW2 my grammie walk bean fields and corn.. feed andy thing she could fine to feed her chickens so she could make mush.. big gardens and milked her goats her girls didnt drink goat milk.. there were 4 of them... them were good but hard times Grammie I still rememeber yyour stories 50 yrs later I miss you...JD
 
The first cow that I bought, at the age of 9, was paid for, in large part, by the money that I had saved from picking up pop bottles alongside the roads and turning them back into the store for the deposit due on them.
 

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