A lesson in conservation. But We Didn't Have The Green Thing!

A lesson in conservation. But We Didn't Have The Green Thing!

        One of my favorite people sent me this email this morning! 
 

                                        The Green Thing

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 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 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.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we used for a number of things.  Mostly for household garbage bags but we also used brown paper bags as book covers.

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.

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 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. 

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. We replaced dull razor blades instead of throwing away the whole razor. 

But we didn't have the green thing back then.

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 that the current generation laments how wasteful we "old folks" were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

A lesson in conservation.........But We Didn't Have The Green Thing!