shropshire 0 #1 January 15, 2012 QuoteChecking out at the supermarket recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. I 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 about one thing–our generation didn’t have the green thing in “Our” day. So what did we have back then? After some reflection and soul-searching on “Our” day, here’s what I remembered we did have…. Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop 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 repeatedly. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day. 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 nappies because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 240 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 Wales. In the kitchen, we blended & 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 petrol 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 water 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 bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums 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 post this on your Facebook profile so another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smarty-pants young person can add to this (.)Y(.) Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnnyMarko 1 #2 January 15, 2012 When I think about this stuff, I can't help think about my environmental ethics course...who know/cares if 3 generations from now, people will be reliant on oil at all or if something new will come along. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shropshire 0 #3 January 15, 2012 It just makes me piss my self laughing when Politicians and Big Business 'Tell' us to be greener (and pay for the privilege!)) when so much of what we buy these days is over packaged and shipped half way around the world when we make similar products here at home... We buy lamb from New Zealand (could it ever get further away?) , when there are field after fields of the little rascals here.... all ready from roasting with out the need of a Cruise holiday first. The world is going mad (.)Y(.) Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnnyMarko 1 #4 January 15, 2012 Quote The world is going mad It really is...regardless of future generations, this might be the millionth time I've said it on these forums, but my generation is so fucked Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oldwomanc6 60 #5 January 15, 2012 QuoteQuote The world is going mad It really is...regardless of future generations, this might be the millionth time I've said it on these forums, but my generation is so fucked Every generation has said this, and it's true to a certain extent. Every generation has also gotten out of it, exactly what it put in. We all have a certain amount of control over how our collective lives have turned out. Do what you can to influence things in the way you feel is necessary. That's your individual responsibility.lisa WSCR 594 FB 1023 CBDB 9 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 3,120 #6 January 16, 2012 There is definitely some truth in that; in a lot of ways the ways of our grandfathers were a lot more sustainable than ours are today. Of course there are a lot of things that they wasted like crazy that we don't. We don't spray our drinking supply watersheds with DDT any more. My grandfather had a coal chute so that the coal company could deliver coal he could burn in his furnace. Before he died they had converted to natural gas. When he first started raising a family they had to choose a house based on where it was; you had to be able to walk to the store. They didn't buy a car until my father was in his teens. When my father was a kid they had one radio in the house. They didn't use it in the summer because it made the room too hot. Nowadays you can get a thousand times the functionality of that old radio with something that takes a thousandth the power. In 1980 average car gas mileage was 16mpg. Now it's 24. Still, with all our advances, some of those old methods of doing things are coming back. A lot of people bring their own bags to the stores to carry stuff home in. We get most of our beer either in growlers or refilled bottles. And we use cloth diapers not just because there's less waste but because they work better. In many cities biking and walking are on the rise again. Cities are putting in bike lanes and better pedestrian access to shopping areas so they're not inaccessible asphalt islands with no safe way to get there other than by car. We look at windmills today as symbols of advanced energy generation, but there was a time not so long ago when Sears sold appliances that would run on 32 volts DC - the voltage that a Jacobs farm wind generator put out. From the 1920's to the 1940's, wind generators supplied power to most farms that had power. So while there are indeed a lot of new technologies out there that help people "go green" that article is a good reminder that a lot of the methods we can use to reduce our impact on the environment aren't that new at all - and work just as well today as they did 50 or 100 years ago. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skymama 37 #7 January 16, 2012 I always ask for plastic bags. I use them for cat poop bags and I recycle the extra ones back at the store.She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man, because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 4 #8 January 16, 2012 I'd love to trace that back to when, where and who wrote it. In doing Google searches, it's been out there for at least 6 months, but there are some interesting anachromisms, terminology and geography in it. For instance, "We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building." Also, "And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of Wales." Not "whales," but "Wales." Hmmm...quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oldwomanc6 60 #9 January 16, 2012 "And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of Wales." Not "whales," but "Wales." Hmmm... The first time I received this was July 25. And it was Montana. Good points, though.lisa WSCR 594 FB 1023 CBDB 9 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andy9o8 2 #10 January 16, 2012 QuoteIt just makes me piss my self Do you use washable nappies? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnnyMarko 1 #11 January 16, 2012 ...so much of what we buy these days is over packaged... This is one of the biggest things that gets on my nerves. Why the hell do 'they' put a box inside of a box wrapped in plastic in another box? I just wanted a fucking wrist watch! I work at the campus bookstore and its employee policy to ask EVERY customer if they want a bag and nothing pisses me off more when someone buys a single book and get a back even though they have a freaking backpack on Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
