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.
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 thestate 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 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?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation
from a smartass young person.
Remember this...
Don't make old people mad. We don't like being old in the first place,
so it doesn't take much to tick us off.
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
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