Green Thing

Checking out at the store, 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 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 our 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,
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.
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            
bag but 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 in the family's $45,000 SUV or van,                       
which cost what 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 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 smartass 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
smartass who can't make change without the cash                        
register telling them how much.
Stupid kid.