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[longlast]

Yesterday after shopping in our local supermarket, I was in the queue at the Check Out, and heard when the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment.
 The woman apologised to the young girl & then sighed, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."
 The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. You folk didn't do enough to save our environment for future generations."
 The older lady said "Ahh yes you're right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day." She sighed then continued:
 Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles & beer bottles to the shops. The shops then sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized & refilled, so those same bottles were used over & over, thus REALLY were recycled. But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.
 Grocery stores put our groceries into brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) were not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalise our books on their brown paper bag/covers. But, too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.
 I remember how we walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store or office building; walked to the grocery store & didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go 200 yards.
 . . . 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, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind & solar power really did dry our clothes back in our days. 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 radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And if anyone did own a TV, it had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of a football pitch. When cooking we blended & stirred by hand coz we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send by post, we used layers of 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 tap or 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 the razor blade 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 bus & kids rode bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's expensive car or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing"..
 Oh and 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 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest leisure park.
 . . . . But it so sad this current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then? . . . I think you should forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from some smart ass young person. .. ...
 We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smart ass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much

[OBB]

Good points for sure.


Glad I was able to read that from my energy gobbling smart phone on my lunch break.

[GregKhougaz]

        

[iski]

 

We were so dirt poor when I was a kid, we could barely afford enough dirt to be considered dirt poor.  Sometimes we had to borrow dirt from the neighbors, who had more dirt than we ever had.  But we had our borrowed dirt & we were proud of it, even though we could not afford it.

[Streetglide1]

This is a good point however this write-up has be floating around on FB and other social media for over 10 years

[J Heinlein]

I couldn't agree with you more. I had to laugh about the covering of the books.  I remember well doing it in my school days way back when.  The kids of today take way too much for Granite.

[havenolife]

we were so poor if it never got really cold on xmas eve we would not have anything to play with when we woke uo on xmas day!

[Rimjam]

We were so poor that we had to hang a piece of bacon from a string over the table and sop (southern term) our biscuits in the shadow.

[2k]

I had to eat my cereal with a fork, so Sis would have some milk.

[Rooster]

So poor had to fart in a pocket to have a sCENT.

[longlast]

  We were so poor that so I didn't have to sleep on the floor we nailed a length of wood on ether wall in the hall way to the back door and laid  a door on then about 3ft down from the ceiling. That was my bedroom we had to duck under my bedroom to go out the back door.

[FlaHeatWave]

We were so poor, that for Christmas, I would get a new pair of blue jeans with one of the front pockets cut out, I'd have a new pair of pants... and something to play with...

[DaBigNuttedMan]

We were so poor, that for Christmas, I would get a new pair of blue jeans with one of the front pockets cut out, I'd have a new pair of pants... and something to play with...

  when I turned about 12 years old my parents just cut the pocket out of my old dungerees for my birthday 

[08glide]

  when I turned about 12 years old my parents just cut the pocket out of my old dungerees for my birthday 

dungerees, now thatt thar be awurd dat them "green" gen kids wouldn't know. imagine askin one uf em to go down to da general store & ask ol man Dillard to fetch ya par of dungeress. they probably can't find it in their com- pooter   

[Rooster]

A couple of years back a young lady showed up at the door seeking $$ donations to go towards the plastic bag syndrome. I asked if she knew anything about the history of this. So I told her how the "Green" folks preached save a tree use plastic. Now you want the same people to pay for your screw up. I said you should go home and do some research and I bet you won't be knocking on anymore doors about this.