Reproduction
The Green Thing
I wanted to write about good old days and by some stroke of luck this came in today in my email.
It save me writing another.
Even in my twilight years I practice some of them but at a leisurely pace unlike when I was young.
This is a reproduction!
Please consider the environment… do you really need to print this e-mail?
I SAY PRINT IT IF YOU CHOOSE TO SHARE W/ A NON-COMPUTERIZED PERSON!
The Green Thing
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.
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 young person.
Remember: Don’t make old people mad.
We don’t like being old in the first place, so it doesn’t take much to pi= us off.
