# Being Green, A tale many here will appreciate!



## MasterMech (Sep 9, 2012)

"Borrowed" this one from a Facebook post.

*Being Green

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment f
or future generations."

She 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 truly recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.

But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

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 throwaway 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 clothes back in our early 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 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 wadded up 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 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 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger 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 smart ass young person.

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.
Source Lake Travis*

Just when I thought I knew everything.


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## ScotO (Sep 9, 2012)

I read that a while back, and it holds as true as anything I've ever seen!


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## Jack Straw (Sep 9, 2012)

But, we did dump our used motor oil on the ground behind the barn and burn our garbage, so we weren't perfect!


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## ScotO (Sep 9, 2012)

Actually, I bet that motor oil around foundations would help out an awful lot when it comes to dealing with termites/ants.  Maybe that's why the old timers did that!


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## BrotherBart (Sep 9, 2012)

And used corncobs and the Sears catalog for...

Never mind.


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## Thistle (Sep 12, 2012)

2 red cobs,1 white one....


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## Backwoods Savage (Sep 13, 2012)

Don't forget the corn silk. Then there is also the velvet leaf.


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## bogydave (Sep 13, 2012)

BrotherBart said:


> And used corncobs and the Sears catalog for...
> 
> Never mind.


 
 Why were the index pages always the first to go ?


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## Adios Pantalones (Sep 14, 2012)

I dunno man, they also created the Hanford Site (It is far scarier than anything you might imagine), set off nuclear weapons all over the place, cleared/drained wetlands and forests (we have more forest in most states now, then at the turn of the 20th century), gave us Love Canal...

Silent Spring was written in (late 50's? Early 60's?)- people were seeing effects that worried them already.


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## begreen (Sep 14, 2012)

This is an old canard. My older brother has sent it to me twice over the years.  Funny thing is that the older folks were the first to embrace the labor savers. After 20 yrs of mowing or washing clothes, or digging ditches by hand they were the first to welcome labor savers. What I remember was that the 50's brought you hiding under your desks with cold war scare drills, thalidomide and DDT for starters. The 60's brought us cars that got 10mpg, Coca Cola and Pepsi lobbyists convincing voters that bottles being brought to stores was unsanitary and GE dumping PCBs in our eastern rivers. The residue of that legacy goes on.


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