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Older Generation didn't have the "green thing"

TallTrees
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Sent to me by a very old friend who enjoys a joke ~  regularly!!grin    Wow how things have changed

 

 

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment.


The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

The older lady said that she was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain:

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 our groceries 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 on the brown paper bags. 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 New South Wales. 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 blade 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 a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing." 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 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

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

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation 

from a smarty who can't give change without the cash register information.

 

 

 

 



HAPPINESS IS BEE SHAPED

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dgilbert2
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@TallTrees wrote:
I liked it too😊

No bias there then LOL

 

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TallTrees
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Absolutely @dgilbert2 not😇


HAPPINESS IS BEE SHAPED

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Glory1
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Nothing I can really add to what's already been said, except I do get so sick and tired of my generation being blamed for what's wrong with the world today. While the world was far from perfect 'back in the day' there wasn't the waste, sickness, unhappiness and violence we see today. For a start we were happy with, and made the most of, what we had.

 

I accept progress is often necessary but not always necessarily good.

Lover of all things Samsung. Currently using Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus 128gb


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dgilbert2
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With all this plastic pollution today, maybe we will go back to glass milk / pop bottles again? 

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Cleoriff
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People should watch the BBC documentary Drowning in Plastic, which takes over from where Blue Planet 2 left off!!

https://www.countryliving.com/uk/wildlife/a23392988/drowning-in-plastic-bbc-documentary-blue-planet-...

See what it's doing to our wildlife and sea life.

Watch the video at the end. It tells you 10 ways to reduce plastic in your life.

 

 More than eight million tonnes of plastic is thrown away each year and washed out to sea. It takes centuries to break down. It's eaten by marine creatures. And it's in our food chain. Your seafood supper may have a synthetic garnish. Scientists just don't know what effects it has on our health. Sky Ocean Rescue is doing something about it.

 

 

Veritas Numquam Perit

Girl in a jacket
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jonsie
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@Cleoriff wrote:

People should watch the BBC documentary Drowning in Plastic, which takes over from where Blue Planet 2 left off!!

https://www.countryliving.com/uk/wildlife/a23392988/drowning-in-plastic-bbc-documentary-blue-planet-...

See what it's doing to our wildlife and sea life.

Watch the video at the end. It tells you 10 ways to reduce plastic in your life.

 

 More than eight million tonnes of plastic is thrown away each year and washed out to sea. It takes centuries to break down. It's eaten by marine creatures. And it's in our food chain. Your seafood supper may have a synthetic garnish. Scientists just don't know what effects it has on our health. Sky Ocean Rescue is doing something about it.

 

 


I find it deplorable that we have known about this for years but are only just relatively recently taking action and doing something to try and reverse it. Thankfully, the whole world is now prepared to change the habits and practices brought about by cheap plastic packaging.

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