We Didn't Have The Green Thing Back Then...

Lately it seems I get many of my ideas for blog topics from e-mails or Facebook posts that I read. This is no exception – except this is one of the better ones I’ve “borrowed”. I have no idea who wrote it originally but I borrowed it from my dear friend Gayle who posted it on her Facebook page. I have edited it ever so slightly to make it read a little easier but the content is the same. Thanks Gayle. This is great!

Enjoy.

Checking out at the grocery store recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. I 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."

And you know? It’s true. Our generation didn't have the “green thing” in “Our” day. So what did we have back then? After some reflection and soul-searching on "Our" day here's what I remembered we did have....

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store gave us a small refund and sent the bottles back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. 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, carbon burning machine every time we had to go two blocks. But it’s true. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed our babies’ 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. 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 and/or stereo 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 with physical work so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But 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 to get around and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service or being required to ride a school bus. We had one or two electrical outlets 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?

Share this if you wish if you know another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smarty-pants young person…