The following piece was e-mailed to me by a colleague and was
doubtless e-mailed many times before that to other people - but I think it's
worth posting here. I hope you agree, even if you're a (relative)
youngster.
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 clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care
enough to save our environment for 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
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 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 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest
pizza joint.
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in
conservation from a smartass young person.
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