"The Green Thing"

Taking Care of the Environment

I saw this article many years ago and it made quite an impression on me. I loved it. It’s so good, I thought it was time to bring it out of mothballs one more time …

"The Green Thing"

In the checkout lane at the grocery store, a young cashier suggested rudely to a much older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags. “It’s very important to ‘Live Green’. Plastic bags are not good for the environment.”

The elderly woman apologized to the young cashier and explained, "I’m sorry. We didn't have this 'green thing' you mention back in my younger days."

The young clerk snapped, "That's the problem today. Your generation didn’t care enough to save the environment for future generations."

The older lady said, “You’re probably right. Back then, we had to return milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized and refilled, so they could use the same bottles over and over. They were 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 other things. Most memorable, besides household garbage bags, we used brown paper bags to make personalized book covers for all our school books. This was to make sure public property (the books provided to us by the school) wasn’t defaced by any scribblings.

But, it is too bad, we didn't do the ‘green thing’ back then.

We walked up stairs because we didn't have escalators in stores and office buildings. 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’ back in our day.

Back then, we had to wash the baby's diapers, because we didn't have the throw away kind. We had to dry our clothes on a line outside, not in a machine that burned 220 volts. Wind and solar power dried our clothes, back in our day. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothes.

But young lady, you’re right. We didn't have the ‘green thing’ back when I was young.

In those days, 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, not one the size of Montana.

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand, because we didn't have electric machines to do it for us. When we sent something fragile in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam noodles or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline to cut the grass. We used a push mower that ran on people power. We exercised by working hard. We didn't go to a health club to walk on a treadmill run by electricity.

But you’re right. We didn't have the ‘green thing’, not way back then.

We drank water from a fountain when we were thirsty, not a cup or a plastic bottle you throw away. We refilled our writing pen with ink instead of buying throwaway pens, and we replaced the razor blade in a razor when the blade got dull. We didn’t throw the whole razor away.

But it’s true. We didn't have the ‘green thing’ back in our day.

Back then, people took a streetcar or bus and kids walked or rode bikes to school. We didn’t turn our mom into a 24-hour taxi service in an expensive SUV or van.

Those cost what a whole house did, before anyone ever heard of the ‘green thing’.

We had one electric plug in every room, not a bank of sockets for a dozen appliances. And we didn't need computerized gadgets to get a signal from satellites in space to locate the nearest hamburger joint.

But it sure is sad when young people in this generation tell us how wasteful we old folks were in ours …

… just because we didn't have the ‘green thing’ way, way back in our day.

[Author Unknown]

“Success is not how high you climbed, but whether you made a positive difference in the world.”

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