Being Green Don Stinnett : Being Green 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 werent good for the environment. The woman apologized and explained, We didnt have this green thing back in my earlier days. The young clerk responded, Thats our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future Generations. She was right -- our generation didnt 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. But we didnt 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 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 didnt do the green thing back then. We walked up stairs, because we didnt have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didnt climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didnt have the green thing in our day. Back then, we washed the babys diapers because we didnt 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 didnt 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 didnt 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 didnt 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 didnt need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But shes right; we didnt 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 didnt 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 familys $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 didnt 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 isnt it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didnt 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 dont like being old in the first place, so it doesnt take much to piss us off...especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who cant make change without the cash register telling them how much. = =
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 05:31:43 +0000
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