No, We Didn't Have The "green Thing" Back Then...

[HarryWeezer]

The young cashier suggested to the elderly shopper to bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. "We didn't have this green thing back in my day," the shopper responded. The clerk answered: "Yah, That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to protect the environment for future generations."

 

No, we didn't have the "green thing." Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store, which sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and reused. Groceries were bagged in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things including the household garbage and as covers for our schoolbooks so that we could write on those, rather than public property.

We walked up stairs because we didn't have escalators or elevators; we walked to the grocery store rather than climb into a car to go only a few blocks. We washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have disposables, and dried them and all our clothes on a line in the back yard, rather than in an energy-gobbling dryer running on 220 volts - kids got hand-me-down clothes.

We had one radio - later one TV in the house rather than one in every room and the TV had a small screen, not one the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred and ground by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do all that. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail we old newspapers, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

We didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. 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 blades in a razor instead of throwing the whole thing away. We road bikes everywhere rather than have mom take us in the car.

We had one electrical outlet per room, not a bank of sockets to power all manner of things.

No, we didn't have the green thing back then - sorry about that.