The Enviroment

[John Small]

This one gets better as it goes.................


Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to me the other day, that I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.


I 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, 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.



Grocery stores bagged ourgroceries 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) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books. 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 she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.



Back then, we washed the 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 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 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 wadded up old newspapers 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.



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 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 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 burger joint.




But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we older folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?



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




We don't like being older in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi shipmates, We were green it was our way of life,{ not by choice or law} then the throw away society happen, its still going strong today? but the landfill dumps are full so more laws from the E.U landfill tax and green tax will come to stop people who dont care about the earth, only about more cheap goods from China

[Captain Kong]

The garbage is now being exported to China, and used for landfill there.
Brian

[Ivan Cloherty]

Unfortunately Brian the garbage will be in the streets protesting on Wednesday, what the hell they are protesting about is incomprehensible, the lady is dead, there is nothing she can alter.

Mostly it will be morons and rabble rousers out for what they consider a good time and have no real knowledge of the lady's time in power nor have they any interest. They protest because they think it is a good opportunity to break the law with the minimum chance of being apprehended. We live in sad times

[happy daze john in oz]

The garbage is now being exported to China, and used for landfill there.
Brian

Have you ever considered offering **** a spot there?

[happy daze john in oz]

Unfortunately Brian the garbage will be in the streets protesting on Wednesday, what the hell they are protesting about is incomprehensible, the lady is dead, there is nothing she can alter.

Mostly it will be morons and rabble rousers out for what they consider a good time and have no real knowledge of the lady's time in power nor have they any interest. They protest because they think it is a good opportunity to break the law with the minimum chance of being apprehended. We live in sad times

I consider their actions as being those of a very sick society, most where not even born when she was in power and had it not been for her they would not be as well off as they are now. No doubt most of them will take day from work to protest, or are they all on the dole? Or will thye take a 'sickie', that would suit them.