The Green Thing

The Green Thing




In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she 
should bring her own grocery bags 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. Your generation 
did not care enough to save our environment."
He 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 the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers 
or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. 


But that old 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 a wadded
 up old newspaper 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?
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