(This was pinched from another site)
Checking out at the grocery store recently, the young Checkout girl suggested I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. I apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."
She responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."
She was right about one thing -- our generation didn't have the green thing in “Our” day. So what did we have back then…? After some reflection and soul-searching on "Our" day here's what I remembered we did have....
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 repeatedly. 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 240 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 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 fountain when we were thirsty instead of using 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 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? Please pass this on so another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smarty-pants young person can add to this..
Big Bad Al
And back when I was a lass, no household had a second car, so the women would walk or catch the bus to the grocery store, and groceries would be delivered late that afternoon.
ReplyDeleteIn order to get to school we walked, rode our bikes, or caught the school bus. According to the figures I saw, when I graduated from school in 1982, only 20% of kids were driven to school, 80% used their feet or public transport.
And, amazingly enough, you rarely ever saw someone who was overweight.
Whereas in this day and age my spouse 60% of the population is overweight or obese.
My spouse builds hospitals and in order to cater for the increased size of the patient population, the rooms need to be larger, with each bed equipped with an electric winch to get the patient on & off the bed, and the same to get them into the shower and onto the toilet. Special toilets have to be ordered from the USA because the patients are so heavy a standard toilet cannot support their weight.
Google 'Big John' if you want to see what they're putting in the hospitals these days.
And of course, the health care costs have gone up because with the increase in weight comes an increase in associated diseases - diabetes, vascular disease, cardiomyopathy, cancer and renal failure.