We didn't have the green thing when growing up.

This sent to me by a friend. The "wish I'd said that's" just keep coming. Each says something worth the effort.

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 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.

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.

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 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 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, 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 2,000 miles

out in space in order to find the nearest pizza 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.

Remember:

Don't make old People mad.  We don't like being old in the first place,

so it doesn't take much to piss us off !!!!!!!!!!!