I like it every time I read it.
 
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 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" 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 school books. 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 that the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks
were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

--- DB 3.99 + W10 (1607)
 * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)