Don't blame the older generation, because it simply isn't true.!

I have amended this a little bit, because it was written in the American style & I can't pass these off as my words. The author to my knowledge is unknown. 

I am old enough to remember all of these things, including hand washing my twin sons nappies!

Being Green

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 young 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 our day.

Back then all we did was,  return glass milk bottles, soda/fizzy pop 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 truely 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, were not damaged by our scribblings and doodles, as we personalised our books on those old paper bags, so they could be past on the to kids below us.

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, was she right? Didn't we have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's nappies/diapers because we didn't have the throwaway 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 Olympic Stadium. 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 polystyrene nuggets or plastic bubble wrap. Nor, did we fire up an engine and burn petrol, 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 hey what do we know, because we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the bus or other public transport and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service.
We had just the one electrical socket in a room, not an entire bank of them to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerised gadgets to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space, in order to find the nearest take away.

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? 

We didn't call it by a name, but it was a way of life and all we knew ..... Life seemed so much simpler back then!

Next time your about to cast the blame, think back to this post and wonder is there really anyone to blame or is it just a natural progression in life & knowledge!

~ Jane ~