A note from an 80 y/o re: Being Green

A note from an 80 y/o woman re: Being Green

Now that I'm 80 years young, I can tell all the younger people I know
where to go with their "Being Green".

At the checkout stand in the store, the cashier told an older woman
that she should become more "Green" by bringing her own grocery bags
because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green
thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation didn't
care enough to save our environment."

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 energy consuming
escalator or elevator in every store and office building. We walked to
the grocery store and didn't climb into a gas guzzling car, truck or
SUV 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 our 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
the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or
sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old 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 a wadded up old newspaper 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.

When away from home, we drank from a fountain when we were thirsty
instead of using a disposable 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
gas burning 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?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a
lesson in conservation from a smartass young person.

Remember: Don't make old People mad. We don't like being old in the
first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.