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Didn't have the 'green thing' back in our day

4K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  bubbler 
#1 ·
This one has been around for a while, but it couldn't be more true....



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. 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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#3 ·
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.

No, they were reused (which is better).
We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts

But how many amps? :laughing:
And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana

The tiny CRT probably still used more power than a large LCD due to inefficiency. And the flyback transformer kicked up to 20Kv! That's nearly one hundred times the dryer! :laughing:
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.

Good luck with that now. Don't send any heirlooms.
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.

Pure BS unless your lawn was less than a 1/4 acre.
and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

I must be nuts, because I thought I was just replacing the blades and tiny amount of plastic to hold them in with my Gilette Fusion razor. Huh. And I only replace the blades in my electric once a year. AW CRAP THAT USES POWER! Oh wait, they had those back in the 1950s as well.
We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.

I didn't realize that receptacles used power even when nothing was plugged into them. Huh! Convenience is expensive!
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.

Straw man, of course. :jester:




 
#4 ·
Man, now I really do feel old, we didn't get milk in bottles, we milked a cow. When we did go to a store it was for salt, sugar and flour and a few other things, we raised everything else. TV wasn't even invented then and it wouldn't have done any good anyway, we didn't have electricity then either. We did have an ole radio that ran on a battery the size of a car battery.

No car, we had a team of mules and a wagon and in the winter when the ruts got too deep we used a ground sled to get feed and things.

Didn't need a lawn mower, back then if you had grass in your yard you were trash, the twigs of grass that did come up were hoed down and the yard swept clean.

For a razor it was a straight razor and a strop to hone it each time, no throw away blades.

I didn't know what pizza was until I went in the Navy, did not like it at all then, all I wanted was country cookin and didn't like much of anything else. Now the old timers back then were just not with the modern stuff like an ice box and neither were we, too far out in the sticks for ice to make it back out that far.
 
#5 ·
Around here food scraps were put into a separate container in the ground and picked up separately from other garbage... so there was composting and food scrap re-use for feeding animals...
 
#6 ·
Reusable cloth grocery bags may be a thing of the past in the near future. I heard a report on the radio that having customers bring the sometimes dirty or cockroach-infested bags into the store is causing some sanitation issues for store owners.

It makes sense. When I worked for a big bakery years ago (it's now owned by Sara Lee), they told us we could no longer come to work already dressed in our white uniforms. The reason being that employees would put them on at home and then pet their dog or cat, or in some other way get pet hair on their uniform. Then the hair would come off of their uniform at work and get into the bread, doughnut or cookie dough. :sick:
 
#7 ·
Reusable cloth grocery bags may be a thing of the past in the near future. I heard a report on the radio that having customers bring the sometimes dirty or cockroach-infested bags into the store is causing some sanitation issues for store owners.
I've seen cockroaches. I've seen reusable grocery bags.

Now I'm trying to imagine how a bag could be "cockroach infested" -- and I'm not saying it probably isn't true, I'm just wondering how a person could live in such filth that there might be cockroaches INSIDE THE BAG and they don't realize it? Unless these are very small cockroaches or something?

Personally i don't use the cloth bags, it's a hassle. I ask for paper at the grocery store... it's a renewable resource, more can be packed into the bag as long as you carry it like a baby, and then I can use it to set out my recycling at the end of the week (and the bag itself is taken too, so now don't have to go to the curb to bring my bins back)
 
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