The Green Thing.

[tpa]

The Green Thing


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."
The clerk 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, soft drink bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the factory to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.
Back then we did not have plastic bags so we re-used proper cloth and leather bags or wicker baskets.

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 nappies 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 WA.
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 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 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 tram or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums 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 computerised gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest takeaway.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we older people were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?


Please show this to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smartass young person.

[Santa Wally]

And babies wore cloth diapers that their mother washed, not throw away diapers.

[Standard]

There's a lot of truth in this. Remember taking your lunch to school in a brown paper bag and being reminded to bring it home to be reused tomorrow?

[NeightRG]

And babies wore cloth diapers that their mother washed, not throw away diapers.

As an Aussie living in the USA, I feel qualified to translate here.

Back then, we washed the baby's nappies

Nappies are what we call Diapers in Australia.
I could make a few more translations, but I'm only feeling moderately cheeky tonight.

Awesome post, TPA.

[Chirs]

[sydnie7]

And babies wore cloth diapers that their mother washed, not throw away diapers.

My thought was:

And the older generation can even recycle jokes, because we forget we've told them already and our audience has forgotten the punch line!



There's truth on both sides of this coin. . . I remember being in high school for the first Earth Day, and my parents making fun of some of the ideas I came home with. Offered the choice, I'd rather breathe the exhaust straight out of a modern vehicle than the air in Los Angeles on some of those bad old "smog alert" days (it's cleaner, believe me). Ambient air could be so bad that smog test stations couldn't accurately calibrate their "sniffers."

And even if you were heating the water to wash those nappies over a wood fire, you'd be putting particulates into the air -- if you're washing and drying them by machine, there's power and water treatment and all sorts of other issues involved.

Overall makes for a good joke, tho. Now I'll get my coat and join English Bloke in the flight he always seems to be making. . .

[Tony]

well if the older generation didn't do it.....and the younger generation didn't do it.....

I call shenanigans

[PEEDYC]

And babies wore cloth diapers that their mother washed, not throw away diapers.

We called them nappies when we saw that diaper was an anagram for REPAID.

Nuff said.

[EagleJCS]

That's a sad but true list. I could identify with a lot of it.

I can remember that when my brother was in diapers (he's 4 years younger than me), Mom used a diaper laundry service that would pick up the soiled ones (there was a special diaper pail) and would deliver a stack of clean ones. Every once in a while she'd use the disposables when running low on the cloth ones.

When my sister came along a few years later, hardly anyone was using cloth anymore, and there was no diaper service. Mom had a few cloth ones left, but those wore out after a little while. (I helped change my sister's diapers, which I still remind her of from time to time when she gets uppity. I can remember pinning on the cloth ones - nearly stuck myself a few times.) Fortunately, the disposables had gotten better in terms of fit and absorbency.

[xman]

Thank-you. This really does emphasise that the attitudes which lead to our environmental problems are really quite new.