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.”
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.
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.
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?
