Green now - and Then!

(Sent by Shivakumaran)

The Green Thing
Checkingout at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that sheshould bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good forthe environment.

The woman apologised and explained, "We didn'thave this green thing back in my earlier days."

The clerkresponded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enoughto save our environment for future generations."

She was right --our generation didn't have the green thing in its day or didn't call it "green."

Back then,we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. Thestore sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized andrefilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they reallywere recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in ourday.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator inevery store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn'tclimb 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.

Backthen, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-awaykind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machineburning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothesback in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothersor 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 hadone TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had asmall screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen thesize of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred byhand 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 oldnewspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrapBack then,we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. Weused a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so wedidn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate onelectricity. But she's right.We didn't have the green thing backthen.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead ofusing a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. Werefilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and wereplaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the wholerazor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thingback then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kidsrode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not anentire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need acomputerised gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 milesout in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't itsad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Remember😁on't make old people mad.

We don'tlike being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to tick us off.
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person.