Seriously, I'm not an old fogey, but I kinda like this story that was shared by my Facebook contact, Rick Wade.
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Checking out at the grocery store recently, the young cashier suggested
I should bring my own grocery 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, 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 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.
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.
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.
People took the 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 etc.
09
10
Before plastic bags took over, we used paper bags to bring home groceries, then they were used to line the trash can or cover school books, wrap packages, for drawing paper, etc. Sometimes the grocery store, if you asked, would pack your groceries in one of their used boxes instead of a bag, and a box could be reused for a lot of things, like storing stuff (because we didn't have plastic bins for storage), or a bed for the cat when she had kittens.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting some more excellent points, Mary. I remember doing all of those things!
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