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The Green Thing
In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day." The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment." He was right - that generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, they returned their 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 they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's day.
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 had to go two blocks.
But she was right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.
Back then, they washed the baby's diapers because they didn't have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts - wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that old lady is right -they didn't have the green thing back in her day.
Back then, they 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 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 a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
But she's right - they didn't have the green thing back then.
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 that operate on electricity.
But she's right-they didn't have the green thing back then.
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 their writing 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.
But they 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 mums 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. And 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 isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they didn't have the green thing back then!
Re: The Green Thing
I love this!! The whole green slogan stuff gets on my nerves. Not for what it stands for, but because it is cool now to be "green." I love people I know throw around words like "energy efficient" or "environmentally friendly" and they throw their cans into the trash next to the recycle bin!!
Even big companies have jumped on the green-wagon. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but I think a lot of them rush their "green" products when it really isn't that "green."
Thanks for posting this! I printed a few copies of this story and put them in my purse for the next time certain relatives make condescending comments about me being "green" or eating real food instead of mass produced food. I usually tell them I'm not doing anything different than they did back in our grandparents day but I like the story a lot better.
(Although, I guess if I was really "green" like they were back in the day, I would have written it by hand instead of printing it with a printer. And for that matter, I wouldn't even be using a computer!)
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
AMEN!Love this.
On another note, shouldn't a person working in the customer service industry be a little more polite to his customers? Green or not . . . I guess "manners" are something they had back in her day that they don't have today.
I'm always amazed by the green stuff that my grandma does, not because it's green and the "it" thing to do now, but because it's how she was raised to do things.
Part of the problem now, though, is that in a lot of cases, it's cheaper to be wasteful and buy new things than to fix them. Back in their day, you fixed things because you couldn't afford to throw things out and buy new.
Best sound ever: baby's heartbeat! (Heard @ 10w1d)
DITTO this. I think the corporations have a huge part to play in this too. They make their products so that they break and you have to buy new ones. Back in our grandparent's day, the auto manufacturer's knew that every family could only afford one car, so they built reliable cars so that families would stick with them for maintenance (customer loyalty). Now, things are crappily made so that you have to buy a new one, it's not even an option to fix it anymore. 100,000 miles on your car? The drivetrain gives out and it costs more to fix it that to buy a new car. Your TV breaks? Again, costs more to fix it (if you every could find a TV repairman) than to buy a new one. The corporations do this on purpose to make $$$.
I want to buy high-quality products that will last a lifetime. It takes an incredible amount of time and energy to locate those products now.
When I first started cooking "clean" my grandmother would always tell me how proud she was of me for cooking so well for my family. I of course took this at the highest of compliments since she taught my mom to cook and my mom taught me.
It took me a year or so of making my grandmothers recipies and other clean recipies to realize that she was a "clean" cooker too. She made everything from scratch and used produce from the grandfathers garden.
I finally said to her one day, "mom-mom, you let me go on for so long thinking this was the "new" thing to do when you have done it your entire life but never got the "cool" credit for it." She just looked at me and smiled and said, "I never had the option so I had to do it that way, but you deserve the credit because you dont have to do it that way anymore but you choose that healthy option for your own family. Maybe you will be as healthy as I have been for all of my 85 years"