Got this from a friend and enjoyed it enough to pass on to you as a “remember when” as well as a good lesson in conservation. BB
Conservation
In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman thatplastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The womanapologized to her and explained,“We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”
That’s right, they didn’t have the green thing in her day. Backthen, they returned their milk bottles, pop bottles and beerbottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant tobe washed and sterilized and refilled, using the same bottlesover and over. So they really were recycled.
But they didn’t have the green thing back in her day.
In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn’t have anescalator in every store and office building. They walked to thegrocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machineevery time they had to go two blocks.
But she’s right. They didn’t have the green thing in her day.
Back then, they washed the baby’s diapers because they didn’thave the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in anenergy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts – wind and solarpower really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothesfrom their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that old lady is right, they didn’t have the green thing backin her day.
Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house – not a TV inevery room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a pizzadish, not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen,they blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electricmachines to do everything for you. When they packaged a fragileitem to send in the mail, they used wadded up newspaper to cushionit, not styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just tocut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power.They exercised by working so they didn’t need to go to a health clubto run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she’s right, they didn’t have the green thing back then.
They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty, instead ofusing a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water.They refilled pens with ink, instead of buying a new pen, and theyreplaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away thewhole razor just because the blade got dull.
But they didn’t have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar and kids rode their bikes toschool or rode the school bus or walked, instead of turning theirmoms into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outletin a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.And they didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signalbeamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to findthe nearest pizza joint.
But they didn’t have the green thing back then!
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It’s true that we weren’t as wastefull and lazy back then the way we are now and we certainly were so much less voracious in our use of energy. But lets remember that it was the people who came before us who set the course for our present predicament. There has never been a time (or place) when people didn’t jump at the chance to increase conveniance or lessen the physical labors of life when the opportunity arose. They may have been more innocent back then in terms of degree, but they bit the apple everytime just like us. “How green was my valley?” was set at the turn of 20th century Wales, where already pollution was becoming a blight on nature. Human nature is to blame, and we today didn’t invent that.
Very much agree Terry. I enjoyed the above post and that is why I posted it on my site but while all of the above is true and my mother (and I) saved our glass milk bottles and pop bottles the smoke and fumes from the steel mills in the northern Ohio Valley where I was born and raised was so bad that I had to breath in the sulfur at my home 10 miles from the mills. AND, rivers were being set on fire with the burning trash and pollution. So all in all I think perhaps we are moving forward rather than back. BB