Search

Farms & Food

Resources Menu

Local Farms

Green Thing

 220px-Lgumes 01

That Green Thing
Checking out at the store, 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, 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 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 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?

 

 

Main Menu

Facebook