An object lesson

[LONDONER]

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 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.

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 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.

[Eros]

Don't forget about the contamination and shit c: xD just saying, I didn't read it all :c

[MisterTinkles]

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 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.

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 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.

[Vigilias]

I'm sure all those nuclear weapons tests above ground in various Pacific atolls have done wonders for the environment!

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Don't forget about the contamination and shit c: xD just saying, I didn't read it all :c

Coke bottles, Milk bottles were subjected to steam cleaning - after a boiling hot bath with soaps and detergents injected at high pressures into the bottle. No drying was required because by the time the bottle had been hit with steam and went down the track and turned right side up to be filled the very heat of the steam dried the bottle out. There was little to no contamination.

Incidentally, raw meat like hamburger was safe to eat back then. I recall mother serving up raw ground round with garlic, salt and pepper its called 'Steak Tartare' try doing that with store bought meat today.

I'm sure all those nuclear weapons tests above ground in various Pacific atolls have done wonders for the environment!

That was government. The same government that is testing biological weapons, creating drones and uses Depleted Uranium on innocent populations. Iraq and Afghanistan have both been 'dusted' with low levels of radiation from the DU shells and bullets.

So should we blame you, the private citizen for that?


Back when I was a kid there were repair men for everything - if your TV stopped working right you called a repair man who could fix it. Today a TV set goes it costs more to repair it than to get a new one.

I'm not saying that the past was perfect, yes there were a lot of problems, such as rivers so polluted from industrial waste that the rivers literally burned, such as a singular lack of trees. When I was i my 20's I literally planted thousands of trees to help in the battle to reforest America. Today there are more trees in North America and in Europe then there was in the 1890's - the peak of deforestation took place post world war II (1950-60's era).

Today nearly everything is designed to fail. Its called Planned Obsolescence the horror of this is that takes much more material to replace and item than it does to repair it or just replace a single component.

I have a hand crank can opener that has been opening cans for at least 25 years - which is longer than a lot of the members on this board. Today can openers of similar design fail in a year or two. My percolator faithfully perked coffee for over 50 years. This past year the stem broke off the basket. There was a time not too long ago I could replace the stem and basket and get another 50 years of service - but they no longer make those replacement parts and want me to use a drip coffee maker.

I have a cast iron food grinder that is over 100 years old. It has ground meats, vegetables, fruits for over a hundred years and will continue to do so for at least 100 years more as long as it is properly taken care of. Today's 'stainless steel' and plastic ones last 5-10 years and break and there is no alternative but to throw them out.

People are playing lip service to the idea of sustainable living, yet flat refuse to return to the business models that were sustainable. Houses built 50 years ago were built to last a century. Houses built today are build to last only 50 years, and according to minimum building code a lot of the crap inside of the house is designed to fail in 15-20 years.

This is not sustainable.

[LONDONER]

Thank you Bowyn Aerrow. I agree, not everything in the past was wonderful but as you intimate, many things today are far from being perfect, far from being sustainable.

[princealbertofb]

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older woman, ... ...

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

...
especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

Haha, at what point in the story did the older woman become a YOUNG lady???

[princealbertofb]

Bowyn, maybe that's why some people like antiques.... Sustainability.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

I for one do, Prince.

[LONDONER]

Haha, at what point in the story did the older woman become a YOUNG lady???

But that young lady, is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Because there's a comma missing. Now corrected.