Back in the Day and The Green Thing

We've all heard our parents tell us stories of  "back in the day" we used to walk 10 miles uphill with no shoes to get to school, and with just an apple for lunch! We didn't get to ride in a big, beautiful SUV to a school that is two blocks away. And we didn't get money so we could eat our lunch in the various lunch bars you have in school now. Maybe we've even been the parent sharing that little bit of wisdom with our own kids. Sure...some of it is embellishment, but mostly it is true.

I remember riding 45 minutes on a bus to get to school in the morning. We were the first kids on the bus so we had to traipse all over the county picking up everyone else and on the way home the bus driver reversed the trip so we were the last ones off...but we didn't complain. Besides, our bus driver Mrs. Calhoun didn't put up with any of our shenanigans!

Well my sister in law sent me an email that I would love to share with everyone. I think many of you will find it interesting and relevant to the "going green" trend we're in. Now I believe in going green to some extent and recycling and saving our resources for the next generation....but I also agree with a lot of what's in this email. Read for yourself...

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 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.

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 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.


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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