That darn Older Generation Just Didn't Care About Conservation

[strangercreek]

Being Green...

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 young 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 truly recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, 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 scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.

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

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 throwaway 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 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger 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-butt young person.

[laker67]

like it, like it, like it, thank you for posting this.

[Smalliebigs]

Awsome post strangecreek and very true....I copied it and sent it to my nieces

[cnr]

Great post. Sadly I'm old enough to remember most of those things!

[Wayne SW/MO]

I might also add that China didn't have a factory employing over a million to make phones for us. A high school kid could work on a farm, mow lawns, fill those brown paper bags on Saturday, and do other jobs. Now it isn't possible in light of regulations and liability. It's no wonder kids have nothing to do.

[Riverwhy]

Since I am 50 I hope I can call myself part of the older generation.

[bfishn]

Ahhh, the good old days...

Wiping your butt with the slicky pages of the Sears Roebuck in a cold, winter outhouse 'cause you used up the non-slicky pages last summer...

Salvaging the PCB-laden oil from the power transformer that lightning blew off the pole last night so we could dig up thistles and pour it on the roots...

The all-you-could-eat buffet of lead paint chips picked from the bedroom door frame...

Helping Dad mix the DDT and 2-4-D to spray on the dirt in the fields...

Annual 10-mile trips to the local strip pits to watch Big David, the US' second-largest coal shovel devour the earth in house-sized bites...

Running out in the rain to swing the downspout off the painted-roof machine shed over into the cistern to save on hauling water for the house...

Helping Dad keep track of the gas we pumped from the underground farm fuel tank and wondering why it always seemed we put more in than we pumped out...

Catching gi-normous crawdads from the open sewer ditch by the school to chase the girls with...

And all that crumbly old asbestos we used to flake off the classroom steam pipes and pretend it was chalk...

Good times for sure!

(It's alright though, Doc says my lungs will give out long before that extra ear growing out of my left butt-cheek becomes a problem, so not to worry).

[fishinwrench]

Yeah well, they also drained their oil on the ground, threw waste of all kinds in ditches and creeks (old appliances, mattresses, shingles, tires ect.)

There wasn't a mile of county road free of rusty 55gal. barrels, wads of barbed wire, and various tractor parts.

Then there were the "town branches" .......Ugh!.....

I could go on for quite awhile longer if anyone 45 or older still needs their memory jogged.

[bfishn]

Yeah well, they also drained their oil on the ground, threw waste of all kinds in ditches and creeks (old appliances, mattresses, shingles, tires ect.)

There wasn't a mile of county road free of rusty 55gal. barrels, wads of barbed wire, and various tractor parts.

Then there were the "town branches" .......Ugh!.....

I could go on for quite awhile longer if anyone 45 or older still needs their memory jogged.

I think we might have come from the same 'burb. See the post above yours.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, every one of those things in the original post were like that because they didn't have a choice. It certainly wasn't because they were "green", as in environmentally aware. However, it's certainly a good point that we have a greater environmental "footprint" today than they did back then, and that there is a lot of waste in everyday living these days. At the same time, in my extended family, the members from that generation almost never recycle. It's like, by golly, they had to live that way back then but they are going to take advantage of every modern convenience now.