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 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 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 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 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 smart ass young person. We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

I've seen this before and it is so true. We grew up in those days with milk, pop, beer delivery service. I pushed a lot of mowers around the yards where I grew up. Never lived in a home with air conditioning until about 12 years ago. Time have changed.

And never walked by a bottle or penny laying on the ground.

The whole "green thing" is nothing more than a political power grab and an business opportunity for liberals.
Nothing wrong with the basic premise of economy of materials but it goes way too far.
It has nothing today to do with real world issues.

I'm always amazed at all the plastic bags being used. Plastic shopping bags (along with other garbage) are put in large plastic garbage bags. Heck I see leaves and grass clippings that have been put in plastic bags! This country must go through a billions of plastic bags a year. When I was growing none of this was done, we simply didn't use plastic bags. Sandwiches were covered in wax paper. Household garbage was dumped directly in garbage cans which were then carried outside and dumped in the 40 gallon galvanized garbage can. Once a week the garbage man (generally young colored men who were city employees) walked across the yard, dumped our can of garbage in his big plastic container, raised it up on his shoulder, walked to the 2 neighbors houses dumping their cans of garbage in and continued to the corner meeting the garbage truck to empty the container in it.
Obviously we can't have men working like that nowadays but each home should have its own small dumpster where trash can just be dumped directly in w/o being put in plastic bags. Once a week it's wheeled out to the road where a mechanized garbage truck grabs and dumps it in. I see this kind of trash pick up in some places but not around here.

True story ... I remember as a kid walking the rural roadside ditches where we lived looking for beer and pop bottles to the store. We got a penny each for the beer bottle and 2 to 5 cents each for the pop bottle. Finding a pop bottle was like finding big money.

We had horses and goats that did our lawn mowing for the most part with the exception of a small front yard area that was fenced off with grass lawn that had to be mowed and the rose bushes ... otherwise the goats would eat everything.

We got our milk (and cream) from a shirt-tail relative who had a small dairy. Used gallon jars and skimmed the cream off the top.

And we rode our bicycles everywhere.

Miss those days ...

Good Grief I'm old.

Picking up cans and bottles to sell was one of the ways my sister and I made money as kids. My dad wouldn’t “waste time and gas” until we had enough to make the trip worth it.

Back in the good ol’ days a four bit piece was big money.

OP has described much of my youth.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
I'm always amazed at all the plastic bags being used.

We get plastic more often than paper, but we re-use them.

They make very good liners for one of the plastic kitty litter buckets we have. Scooped litter goes in the bag-lined bucket. When it gets full: Pull bag, tie it shut, drop in the garbage bin, put fresh bag in the bucket.

A plastic bag hangs on a nail on the garage wall. We throw small waste items in it, empty vacuums into it, etc.

My wife finds them handy in the garden when she divides plants. Drops the excess into plastic bags for either transport to a landscaper with whom she does trades or to give away to friends.

The only plastic bags that get thrown away around here are those with holes too big to be used for such purposes.

Paraphrasing George Carlin:
The planet wants plastic. That's why we're here.

Back then, we fixed things. Today’s enlightened ones treat everything as disposables.