Definite OT - but tickled my fancy

[Guest guest]

this was sent to me today.

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 the supermarket cashier and explained, " We didn't have

the green thing back in my day. "

The young cashier responded, " That's our problem today. Your generation did not

care enough to save our environment. "

She was right - our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop 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 powerful

car every time we had to go a few hundred metres.

But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have the throw-away

kind. We dried clothes on a line in the garden, not in an energy gobbling

tumble dryer - 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 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 small car.

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 petrol 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 water 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 had become blunt.

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

Back then, people took the a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked

instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service.

We had one electrical socket in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a

half 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 takeaway.

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?