The 'Green thing'

We greybeards have destroyed the planet - oh, the shame!



Checking out at the supermarket, the young cashier suggested to the

much older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because

plastic bags weren't good for the environment.



The woman apologised and explained, "We didn't have this 'green

thing back in my earlier days."



The young cashier 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 our day.



Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles and beer

bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the plant to be washed

and sterilised 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.



Grocery shops bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we re-

used for numerous things, most memorable besides household bags for

rubbish, 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 scribbling.

Then we were able to personalise our books on the brownpaper bags.



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



We walked up stairs, because we didn't have a lift in every

Supermarket, shop and office building. We walked to the local shop and

didn't climb into a 300 horsepower machine every time we had to go half

a mile.



But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.



Back then, we washed the baby's Terry Towel nappies because we didn't

have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-

gobbling machine burning up 3 kilowatts wind and solar power really did

dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids had 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 radio in the house - not a TV in every

room.

In the kitchen weblended 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 pushed the 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 tap or 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 bus and kids rode their bikes to school or

walked instead of turning their Mums into a 24-hour taxi service in the

family's $60,000 People Carrier which cost the same as a whole house

did before the "green thing." 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

23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pub!



But isn't it sad that 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 arse young person...



We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much

to piss us off...especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartarse s

who can't work out the change without the cash register telling them

how much it is!

Here endeth the bloody lesson!

Soap box placed carefully under the stairs.

Re: The 'Green thing'

Well said Joe.

Re: The 'Green thing'

Excellent, Uncle Joe !

Re: The 'Green thing'

But where were "we" when they started all these plastic bags we noticed were polluting our land and the plastic bottle containers which wrapped around dolphins and drowned them?

We could have done something to stop the madness. But we just went along. Not bothering to think of it as being anything but "progress". "Plastic". The magic Mrs. Robinson's word.

Re: The 'Green thing'

Oh so true UJ!