The green thing

Checking out at Coles, 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 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 its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to
the shop. The shop 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 re cycled. But we didn't have the green
thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every
store and office building. We walked to the grocers and didn't
climb into a 200-horsepower machine 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 the baby's nappies because we didn't have the
throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy
gobbling machine burning up 2000 watts -- 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 Yorkshire. 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 post, 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
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 we were thirsty we drank from a tap instead of drinking from a
plastic bottle of water which was tossed into landfill. 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.
We had one electrical socket 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 fish and chip shop.

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, grumpy old git 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.