[bestmickey]

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 young 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.

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
schoolbooks. 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
throwaway 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 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?

[doccrocker]

Too soon we get old, and too late smart. Give the kid some time. With luck, s/he'll eventually learn.

[CaptJohn]

I remember those days well. I used to make 5 cents per coke bottle returned.

And, it was the green bottles with the really good syrup that no longer exists, no matter what they say
it's watered down today. The fun part was looking on the bottom to see where the bottle came from.

[WVMtnBoy]

Couldn't have said it better myself.
Congrats!

[bestmickey]

Originally Posted by WVMtnBoy

Couldn't have said it better myself.
Congrats!

Truth be told, I can't take credit for being the author. I don't know who authored this, but I wanted to share it.

[Golfer in Sanibel]

Right. The 5 cent coke bottles. As a kid I used to collect them when I found them on the street. Got some coins to jingle in my pocket. We were poor by today's standards but life was good.

[redwitch]

Don't know about you but my father walked 5 miles to school every day -- barefooted, in the snow and uphill both ways. There was no milkman or a store to buy the milk -- he had to milk the cow before going to school. His sister had to feed the chickens and get the eggs before she walked with him to school, but she was lucky -- she had shoes even though they were a size too big and had holes in them. His mother worked from sun up to past sundown cooking and cleaning. His father was the local sheriff but also worked in the coal mines (night shift). Yup, we kids didn't know what hard work was and had no clue about sacrifice.

The point is every generation has their stories, their hardships, their pluses and minuses. I'm sure our grandkids will be telling their kids how hard they had it because they had to go to schools and be bullied. They didn't have the advantage of using iPads to go to classes wherever they were hanging at the time. They had clunky, energy-wasting laptops and, even worse, PCs where their parents would stand behind them and watch what they were doing online.

It's not this generation's fault they have no clue what life was life when we grew up anymore than we're responsible for not understanding our parents' more rural life. We definitely had it better than our parents -- that was the goal of parents. Our kids should have it better/easier than we did (not so sure they really do, though). So, why do we constantly put the next generation down for having it better?

[graciegirl]

We have had some wonderful role models in the generation before us.

There is a wonderful girl who lives here in TV and she was born in November of 1912 and she is from Ohio.

This woman washes out plastic bags to reuse them, she grows green beans, tomatoes, pepper, broccoli, cabbage green onions, and blueberries next to her pool. Her daughter cans tomatoes and my older friend is extremely careful with her money and investments, checking them daily on her computer.(AT 99 YEARS of AGE!!) Her brother who is 85 is still a seated professor at a prestigious university and she herself could at least have been president of the United States if she had been born at a different time.

Her grandson came to visit and changed out all of the lightbulbs in her home with energy saving ones and he himself is very interested in the green movement.

This friend called for me to come to rescue some butterfly bushes that had to be moved in her backyard for an addition..so they wouldn't go to waste.

It is true what the OP wrote and it was indeed fun to hear it.

I am so blessed to know so many interesting people hearabouts and so glad to be sharing my space on the planet with these lovely grown up people with some mighty good habits.

EDITED BELOW.....
OH.....I remember another thing about my almost 100 year old friend. She makes her own piecrusts, and yummy ones too, with white flour and lard...and she puts refined sugar in the pie filling. Amazing, isn't it???

[thekeithfan]

I used to return the 5 cent Coke bottles to get cash for gas in my 61 VW. 20 Cole bottles ($1) was enough for the whole week-end, 3 gallons of gas 100 miles!
GREEN today measn 20% more cost and either an inferior product or they are lying! If it says green stay away!

[momesu]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

We have had some wonderful role models in the generation before us.

There is a wonderful girl who lives here in TV and she was born in November of 1912 and she is from Ohio.

This woman washes out plastic bags to reuse them, she grows green beans, tomatoes, pepper, broccoli, cabbage green onions, and blueberries next to her pool. Her daughter cans tomatoes and my older friend is extremely careful with her money and investments, checking them daily on her computer.(AT 99 YEARS of AGE!!) Her brother who is 85 is still a seated professor at a prestigious university and she herself could at least have been president of the United States if she had been born at a different time.

Her grandson came to visit and changed out all of the lightbulbs in her home with energy saving ones and he himself is very interested in the green movement.

This friend called for me to come to rescue some butterfly bushes that had to be moved in her backyard for an addition..so they wouldn't go to waste.

It is true what the OP wrote and it was indeed fun to hear it.

I am so blessed to know so many interesting people hearabouts and so glad to be sharing my space on the planet with these lovely grown up people with some mighty good habits.

EDITED BELOW.....
OH.....I remember another thing about my almost 100 year old friend. She makes her own piecrusts, and yummy ones too, with white flour and lard...and she puts refined sugar in the pie filling. Amazing, isn't it???

Now that's a woman who knows how to life and what is important in life. YUM! Nothing better than a good homemade pie!

[BaylorBear]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

We have had some wonderful role models in the generation before us.

There is a wonderful girl who lives here in TV and she was born in November of 1912 and she is from Ohio.

This woman washes out plastic bags to reuse them, she grows green beans, tomatoes, pepper, broccoli, cabbage green onions, and blueberries next to her pool. Her daughter cans tomatoes and my older friend is extremely careful with her money and investments, checking them daily on her computer.(AT 99 YEARS of AGE!!) Her brother who is 85 is still a seated professor at a prestigious university and she herself could at least have been president of the United States if she had been born at a different time.

Her grandson came to visit and changed out all of the lightbulbs in her home with energy saving ones and he himself is very interested in the green movement.

This friend called for me to come to rescue some butterfly bushes that had to be moved in her backyard for an addition..so they wouldn't go to waste.

It is true what the OP wrote and it was indeed fun to hear it.

I am so blessed to know so many interesting people hearabouts and so glad to be sharing my space on the planet with these lovely grown up people with some mighty good habits.

EDITED BELOW.....
OH.....I remember another thing about my almost 100 year old friend. She makes her own piecrusts, and yummy ones too, with white flour and lard...and she puts refined sugar in the pie filling. Amazing, isn't it???

I learned canning and gardening from my mother who learned from my grandmother who learned from her mother!! I even give canning lessons to my "young" lady friends at church who never had the opportunity that I had. Nothing tastes better than home canned tomatoes!!! Except for maybe that pie you talked about!!