This It really nails
it!!!
The Green Thing
In the line at the store, the
cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because
plastic bags weren't good for the
environment.
The woman apologized to
him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."
The
clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care
enough to save our
environment."
He 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 the clothes.
Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their
brothers or sisters, not always brand-new
clothing. But that old 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 a
wadded up old newspaper 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.
The Green Thing