Old Kind of Green

Received this email today.
I thought it was quite amusing

" 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 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 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 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 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?"
 
The writer forgot to mention that even though we don't use disposable plastic shopping bags anymore, everything that you carry in your reusable shopping bag is individually packaged in about 10 times more plastic than required to make a bag.
 
OA,Not if you just throw your green,veges etc in a re-useable bag and or hemp bag(preferred method)-Haven't you heard of a tossed salad ;)Plastic only adds weight and contamination.
Cheers 0.5 cents/Spades.
 
Oh yeah,to add,that is if your inclined to buy that pre-packaged and or processed carp-ignore my previous post:)
 
OA,Not if you just throw your green,veges etc in a re-useable bag and or hemp bag(preferred method)-Haven't you heard of a tossed salad ;)Plastic only adds weight and contamination.
Cheers 0.5 cents/Spades.

At the markets when you go to the butcher/grocer separately, sure (I used to do that, back in the day - I had one of those little grandma fold up trollies and lobbed everything I bought into that apart from meat) but at Coles, cmon...single wrapped cheese slices in a plastic tray covered in plastic
 
When I was a child we used to visit my grandparents who lived in Orkney.

Back then the local farmers would recycle whisky bottles to deliver the milk in...
 
Yes; back in the days when we weren't green....

I remember when I was 16, we had one car for our household, one tv, one landline phone.

Now, the average household with 2 teenagers has:

Car for dad
Car for mum
Mobile phone for dad
Mobile phone for mum
Mobile phone for teenager 1
Mobile phone for teenager 2
2 tv's (or more?)
Microwave
Clothes dryer
At least 1 computer
Wii/Xbox

And so on.

These are just a few that popped into my head as I read; there would be hundreds more.

I admit our (society's) current life's efforts at being green are way more conscientious than back then, but the level of consumerism and wasteful packaging and energy used now is also way more than back then.

The energy to produce just mobile phones and computers alone in today's world must be mind-blowing.
 
Well! When we were young we lived in shoebox in middle o road! And if we were good our da used t beat us t sleep wid broken bottle!

And we were lucky!
 
My grandmother used to raid Grandfather's unopened pay packets to get the 20c pieces out to pay for milk etc. She was not interested in the $50 and $20 notes, just the coins. She had a stash of unopened pay packets wedged between the wardrobe and the wall in their bedroom.

G/father walked the half a block to the meatworks where he worked, walked home for lunch, back to work, then home again in the evening. He grew veggies in the part of the backyard and ran chooks and ducks further down the back. They did not have a shed to roost in, they roosted in the branches of what must have been the world's tallest mulberry tree.

Greywater from the house was piped down to a brick walled sump with open base on the other side of the backyard behind the birdcage. A peach tree grew beside it, the smell kept people away so the grass grew rank there and the chooks and ducks foraged for insects in the long grass.

A bit further away was an open front shed. A grapevine grew over it, watered by the sump too. This was the shed where the hens set and raised chickens. Beside this shed was the thunderbox.

They had a copper in the bathroom and a plug-in stove in the kitchen. Also 3 power points in the house - fridge, stove and radio/TV. In the early 70's they splurged on a twin tub washer and a portable water heater, which made life a bit easier. Washing didn't take 1 day a week and all hands on deck anymore. They didn't get an extension lead though, so both heater and twin tub had to be moved each time to reach the power point in the kitchen. In about 1980 they got an indoor flush toilet.

I believe they did have a car at one time but before my time. This was in western Sydney.

But they too did not have the green thing.
 
Great story Tigger. Thanks for sharing. I like the description of the garden. Our council would have that place shut down now quicker than you can blink. The chardonnay set would be complaining about the smell, the sound, their amenity being affected.

Of course, you can't do any of those things with the new 300sqm cottage lots, where you are 20cm from your neighbours. The ol' quarter acre block, with a modest 2x1 war-time home up the front with a big long backyard would be required for that.

People would nowadays smack that down, build 5 separate 3x1's on the same land and not be able to swing a cat. Import everything and sit down for 14 hours a day watching Dr Phil or some other American **** complaining about how fat and depressed they all are.


I can only surmise that your Grandfather didn't drink a lot. I hope someone remembered the stash of unopened pay packets....pity they didn't buy BHP shares instead when they were about 70c a pop.

My Grandfather was a pathetic alcoholic, so Grandma used to have to storm into the pub on a Friday night and drag his sorry *** home, with the vast majority of the pay packet handed over the bar hours prior. She had to make do with the cents as well. With 6 or 7 pubs in the district, he always changed his watering hole to give himself more time to drink it all away before she could catch him. Like I said - pathetic.
 
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