I told him he was right - our generation didn’t have this “green thing”. I went on to explain that in my youth we returned milk, soda and beer bottles to the store. The store would send them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized and refilled. Stores bagged our items in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable, besides household garbage, was book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. We were then able draw on the brown paper covers to personalize our books.
Too bad we didn’t do the “green thing” back then.
We walked up the stairs because there wasn’t 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 that clerk was right. We didn’t have the “green thing” in our day.
Back then we washed a baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the disposable 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 laundry. Kids wore hand me down clothes from their brother or sister, not always buying brand-new.
But that clerk was 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 screen no bigger then a handkerchief, not the size of state of Montana. In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric gadgets to do everything for us. When mailing a fragile item, we wadded up old newspapers for cushion instead of purchasing styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up a gas burning engine to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We excised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operated on electricity.
But that clerk was right; we didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day.
When thirsty, we drank from a fountain instead of a plastic bottle. We refilled our fountain pens with ink instead of buying a new one. Instead throwing away the whole razor, we simply replaced the blade. As kids, we’d walk, take a bus, or ride a bike to where ever we wanted to go instead turning our moms into a 24-hour taxi service. Our home had one electrical outlet in each room not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. We didn’t need and computerized phone to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles in space in order to find the nearest burger joint around the corner.
It’s sad that the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the “green thing” back then.
I don’t mind getting old but what really pisses me off is the sight of a smart ass who can’t even process my purchase without the cash register telling him how much change to give.
13 comments:
Too long to be an effective joke or PSA. How many times can this be recycled, no pun intended.
So sad but true.
Sooo true....love it
I save alot of my plastic bags from grocery stores etc. packing them all inside like bags and use as kitchen trash bags. In a couple of years, if not used, they start falling apart/breaking down/degrading, the oldest turning to small pieces or to plastic dust. I'd like to see an intact old grocery store plastic bag that's been under the dirt for 20 years or more.
Millenials, and younger, have no concept of most of what was mentioned in this piece. They have been given much more than we received as children; whoever thought a seven year old should have a cellphone, a t.v. in their room, their own tablet, computer. These are things we did not get until we were old enough to work and make the purchase ourselves.
To a degree, they have been entitled beings.
These young skulls full of mush are just regurgitating the green propaganda they were indoctrinated with at government schools
He works in a box electontic store that burns more energy in one day then probably 20 average homes. Not to mention the carbon foot print left behind to ship the product in he is selling. Typical snowflake hypocrite
Real Estate Agent showing a house to a young couple. "What are those poles in the back yard with rope between them." REA..."That is a clothes line for drying clothes. Young woman...I'm too important to my company to waste time hanging out clothes." "Time is money."
That was the world we grew up in. And it's what we did, because there wasn't a choice. Far different than the world that the young clerk is growing up in. He IS right. He is not responsible for the world he is existing in, WE ARE! It is our generation that created all these choices, many of which are bad for the environment. No one forces anyone to use a clothes dryer, it is a choice. No one forces anyone to have a TV in every room, it is a choice. No one has to have all those kitchen appliances, it is a choice. In the world we have created for this young man to live in, we have created choices for convenience and leisure time. Often the choices are not good for the environment, but nobody but the Amish, and the ones that can't afford all the modern luxuries, are living without all those things the rest of us take for granted. The world that that young man lives in has reached a tipping point. With 7 BILLION people on this planet (and growing exponentially), vs the 3 billion that existed during the time the writer writes about, the young man's generation has to think about the future his generation leaves behind. There was nothing "noble" about the way we grew up. It was all we had. The young clerk's generation sees the limits of the choices we left his generation. Going back to non-polluting reusable bags is certainly a start....
244 the model obama administration used for global warming was untrue. It's all about money.
Really? Do you think this was a conversation that actually happened? Now I understand why so many con artists target this area.
Sooo true !!!!!
You nailed it.
Fabrication 101.
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