The green thing....one for the oldies..

[gordon s]

A mate sent this to me. Made me chuckle...

 

 

The Green Thing

In the line at the supermarket, 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 cashier 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, soft drink bottles and beer bottles and the kids recycled old rags for a few pence pocket money. They bottles were then 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 shop and office building. We walked to the grocery shop and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two streets.

 

But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

 

Back then, we washed the baby's nappies 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 (remember them?), not a screen the size of Tasmania, nor nearly everyone having a mobile phone.

 

 

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 fuel 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 water from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink.

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 bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers 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 place.

 

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

Please forward this on to another selfish older person who needs a lesson in conservation from a youngster who thinks they know it all.

The Green Thing

[Penlan]

.......a lesson in conservation from a youngster who thinks they know it all.

But, they do know it all, it's just that they don't think, I think that's all we need to know!!!!

[Trevellan]

Wonderful!

[coachmann]

Got this as an email a week or two ago. Very good observation .

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

There's a few more things missing that I am reminded of every time I visit the older generation of my family and their contemporaries, especially during the winter.

 

They didn't buy all their clothing from shops which had shipped it thousands of miles from sweatshops elsewhere in the world. Mum sat in the corner and knitted, and also unravelled and reknitted, wool into warm winter gear; sewed, adjusted and mended clothing in other fabrics to extend its' life to an incredible degree. (MiL celebrates Diamond wedding next year, still wears her 'going away' outfit. That had cost her mother coupons when she got it - and coupons were more than money - it wasn't even new as a going away outfit!)

 

They didn't heat their houses that much, just the sitting room in the evening, December to February. If you felt the cold you just pulled on more of the handknitted items.

 

They didn't have vast 'open plan' expanses in their houses. Small rooms and 'putting wood int' hole' to keep the draughts off in cold weather were the way of it; a house was a shelter from wind and rain first and foremost.

 

They didn't fit plastic framed double glazing to their houses, but had 'reduces carbon footprint' wood frames, and lower energy consumption single glazing. This didn't cause any energy loss because the temperature inside was much the same as outside, as the ice on the inside of the windows bore witness in every bedroom come the morning.

 

They didn't light the whole house like a Christmas tree. The lights were only ever on in a room in use, water was only heated if someone was taking a bath or doing the washing up, 'Ascot' type water heater preferred. Warm water for your morning wash strictly for infants and invalids.

 

They largely ate locally sourced and home cooked foodstuffs much of which had never seen a gram of packaging. The food miles often amounted to the walk from the vegetable patch and/or the bicycle ride to the allotment. Everything edible got eaten, hunger meant no one had allergies or food fads. All food wastes recycled to compost or pig and chicken feed type uses.

 

They didn't insist on everything being fairly new. Repairs were undertaken on everything imaginable. Their shoes were regularly resoled and heeled so they went on forever. Bicycle tyres were 'doubled up' to protect inner tubes and extend the life considerably at the cost of a harder ride.

 

They simply were not green at all, at least in any way that made large commercial concerns any money...

 

On the money subject, this is where the truth is revealed: I know the budgets some of these folk live on. Ok, they own their homes, tend to live in places where the council tax is small, have bus passes and free TV licences. Annually they don't even spend the state pension on themselves. They can save on the state pension, and are cheerful and healthy despite the infirmities the years bring.

 

Interesting side note, one of my wife's senior relatives at one time zipped around in a fast thing with a big engine in the front, guns in the wings and all that, in KGVI's and the nation's service. He reckons he hasn't succeeded in burning as much petrol in his intervening civlian years to the present, despite sixty odd years accrued motorcycling and driving.

[Webbo]

I am a retired motor mechanic and in the "old days" during my appernticeship and in the years after, up to about 1975 most things on vehicles were repaired. I.E. water pumps, steering ball joints, suspension legs and shock absorbers, brake shoes were re-riveted, engines, gearboxes, back axles, steering boxes, starter motors, dynamo's,alternators, the list is nearly endless. What you could remove from the vehicle could be repaired. Now we are in the "recycling age" everything on a vehicle is throw away including the vehicle. Nothing is repaired by the new superhuman technitions, they don't have a clue how to do it. A few years ago a friend of mine had been restoring an MGB with a technition, he took it for a test drive and the ign light came on. The tech said it wanted a new alternator costing about £30, I was there at the time and asked him to remove the alt, I stripped it down and tested it, then got some new brushes at the cost of £4 and fitted them, the tech put it back on the car and the light went out, he was gobsmacked, he didn't know they could be repaired. I could ramble on giving other examples but you would only get bored. It is not only the motor trade but all the other similar industries.

webbo

[Penlan]

.......the tech put it back on the car and the light went out, he was gobsmacked, he didn't know they could be repaired. I could ramble on giving other examples but you would only get bored.

...Like asking them to fit a new rotor arm in the dizzy...... (I have a few Austin 7's).

Edited September 5, 2011 by Penlan

[PhilH]

Every time I battle through a street lined with 4x4s waiting to chauffeur little darlings from school I am reminded of what my mother told me about when I started primary school. This school was 1 1/2 miles from my house - apparently my mum took me there and back on my first day then it was up to me.

 

Not just my mum, we all did it - at 5 years old. I'm pleased to say I don't have nightmares about it....

[pointstaken]

Things lasted a lot longer because they were much simpler and usually repairable. Most people couldn't afford to replace things that weren't completely knackered. Make-do and mend were in general the order of the day. Thus there was nothing to recycle, because only completely worn out items were dumped. It was only when the disposable generation arrived on the scene that recycling and the green thing became fashionable.

 

Dennis

[Simon G]

We used to save on clothes in a different way. When I went to secondary school, I was still wearing short trousers for a year or so. They lasted an awful lot longer as they couldnt go through at the knees! You wont even spot a kid in first year primary school in short trousers now. Odd thing is that I dont remember feeling cold, even in winter. I guess that as I used to charge around at full throttle all the time, I kept myself warm!

 

In winter, a great sledge could be made out of a sheet of corrugated iron - just bend up the front foot of the sheet and you had the fastest thing on the slopes (but God help any poor soul who got in the way - they were liable to be sliced in two!).

 

As to cars, my first was a Mk2 Vauxhall Viva, that initially burned petrol for fun. Without any real knowledge or experience I changed the rotor arm, adjusted the points (remember them!) and adjusted the spark plug gaps. End result - over 40 mpg. Today it would over £100 for a "black box", plus a load more to fit said "black box".

[Guest Max Stafford]

People lived relatively close to their workplace too until the 1980s. As a boy in the 1970s I remember seeing lots of men walking to work on the local industrial estate (in a new town as well!) There were also workers bus services.

I think at 47 years old, I must be one of the last wave of people to remember that way of living - I used to walk two miles to school and back despite having a bus pass as I enjoyed the walk better and avoided the morons I would otherwise have shared the bus with. It was obviously a crossroads generation I belonged to as I see many people who would have been my contemporaries who have clearly bought into the status symbol worshipping, materialistic, wasteful, lemming like lifestyle that sprung up in the 1980s and which I myself utterly despise despite having a car (which rarely gets used for the 2 mile journey to work) and a couple of gadgets. I'll admit to using this thing a bit much and texting more than I should but if that's my worst excess I'm not being too bad.

I think though that if we lost internet and mobile communications tomorrow, I'd survive pretty happily.

I've a TV in the corner which I think I've watched a total of five times this year!

 

Dave.

[Horsetan]

Every time I battle through a street lined with 4x4s waiting to chauffeur little darlings from school ...

 

Has anyone ever noticed that a lot of parents seem to let the kids out of the car on the road side, and not the pavement side?

[skipepsi]

 

Has anyone ever noticed that a lot of parents seem to let the kids out of the car on the road side, and not the pavement side?

You didn't really expect anything better did you?

[trisonic]

Sounds like a mantra, Gordon.

Remember the Winter of 1963? I remember the glass of water on my nightstand (except we didn't call it that then) in my bedroom freezing solid overnight.

I'd left home years before my folks got around to having central heating.

 

Best, Pete.

[stewartingram]

 

Has anyone ever noticed that a lot of parents seem to let the kids out of the car on the road side, and not the pavement side?

 

Usually because they park ON the pavement and can't get that door open.

 

They are off-roaders aren't they?