They didn’t have the “green thing” back then.
In the line at the store, the cashier commented to the elderly woman that plastic bags weren’t good for the environment so she should use paper bags.
The elderly woman replied, “We didn’t have the ‘green thing’ back in my day.”
That’s right, they didn’t have the ‘green thing’ in her day, but…back then, they returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized & refilled, using the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. Imagine that?
In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300 horsepower machine every time they needed to go two blocks.
They didn’t have the ‘green thing’ in her day. But, they washed the baby’s diapers because they didn’t have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line usingwind and solar power, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts, which really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, new clothing was considered a real gift.
Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house – not a TV in every room. The TV had a small screen the size of a pizza dish, not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines to do everything for you. When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used wadded up newspaper to cushion it, not styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut 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 club to run on treadmills operated by electricity.
They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty, instead of using 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 they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
Back then, people took the streetcar and kids walked, rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus, instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. They 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, remember, they didn’t have the ‘green thing’ back then!
