Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much
older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic
bags are not good for the environment.


The woman apologized to the young girl 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."

The older lady said that she was right -- our generation didn't have
the "green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain:

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 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 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 blade 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 smart ass young person.

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to
tick us off... Specially from a smartass who can't make change without
the cash register telling them how much!

Pap