The Green Thing

[fatherted]

             

We greybeards have destroyed the planet - oh, the  shame



Checking out at  the  supermarket, the young cashier suggested to the

much older  woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because

plastic bags weren't good for the environment.



The woman  apologised and explained, "We didn't have this 'green

thing back in my earlier days."



The young cashier 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

our day.



Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles and beer

bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the plant to be

washed and sterilised  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 shops bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we re-

used for numerous things, most memorable besides household bags     

for rubbish, was the  use of brown paper bags as book covers for our

schoolbooks.     This was to ensure that public property (the books

provided for our use by the school), was not defaced by our scribbling.

Then we were  able to personalise our books on the brown paper  bags.



But too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.



We walked upstairs, because we didn't have a lift in every Supermarket,

shop and office building. We walked to the local shop and didn't climb

into a 300 horsepower machine every time we had to go half a mile.



But she was  right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.



Back then, we  washed the baby's Terry Towel nappies because we

didn't have the  throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an     

energy-gobbling machine   burning up 3 kilowatts wind and solar power really did  dry our clothes     back in our early days. Kids had 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 radio or TV in the house - not a TV in every

room and the TV  had a small screen the size of a big handkerchief

(remember them?), not a screen the size of Scotland. 

         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 petrol just to cut the lawn. We pushed the 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 tap or 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 in

the family's $60,000  People Carrier which cost the same as 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 computerised gadget to receive a signal beamed from     

satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pub!



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?



Please forward  this on to another selfish old person who needs a

lesson in conservation from a smart opening at the lower end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste is eliminated from the body young person...



We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much

to piss us off...especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced     

smartarses who can't work  out the change without the cash register telling

them how much it is!

         

        Here endeth the bloody lesson!

[Can the Man]

Oh how right you are Father Ted

[Deso]

Aahh, the good old days. )

[Elite of the forum]

But all to true Deso