OT The Green Thing

[Copter_Six]

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much 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 young 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 our 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.

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 schoolbooks. 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.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the
throwaway 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.

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?

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!



--

Copter Six

[Gregory]

>And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?)

>not a screen the size of the state of Montana .

Kansas would be a good size and shape for a screen!

>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.

This is especially true!


Don't worry too much.. seems we'll be returning to the 'old days'
before long. Are you prepared? [ you in general ]


-G

[Bob D]

Amen!

[Vic Baron]

"Copter_Six" <c...@texas.com> wrote in message
news:kvpebv$s29$1...@news.albasani.net...
>


And that's the truth!

Vic

[ManhattanMan]

Especially the last line! :)

--
MnM

[robertva]

I still shake my head when my purchase totals something like $9.78, I
give the clerk a ten dollar bill and three pennies and the clerk looks
at the pennies wondering what the h___ the are for. Sometime they will
even give the pennies back saying "I don't need these."

[TOCA]

"robertva" <invalidr...@hotmail.com> skrev i meddelelsen
news:kvqiu4$m2$1...@dont-email.me...

One of my favorite pass time things, when I buy any thing, I just love the
bewildered look on their faces when I do it :o)

Tommy C, Denmark