The Green Thing

       This story has circulated the Net and has been posted on Facebook. I don't know the original source (if you do, please let me know so I can credit it). I'd thought I'd share it and my response to it (at the end).

The story

       "Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much 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 scribbling. 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 in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing." 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 that the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then? 
       Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smartass young person... 
       We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off...especially from a smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much. 
The end !' 

My response

       “Yes, ma’am, all those were good practices. My grandmother and mother lived through those times too.  I’ve heard many stories of economizing and re-using.  I agree that people waste a lot, and that our generation is different.  But let’s put things in perspective.  No, you didn’t have a ‘green thing’ because you all thought there was pretty much an endless supply of oil and gas, as well as forest and water.  Protecting the environment, as a resource, wasn’t on anyone’s radar –otherwise rivers would’ve never become so polluted that some would actually catch fire.  Recycling was a matter of personal economic necessity for some, but for the most part it didn’t exist – discard it or burn it was business as usual.  No one thought about the ‘green thing’ back then because if they had they would have never used pure nicotine, cyanide, arsenic, mercury, lead, DDT, Chlordecone, or other such harsh and deadly chemicals in their homes and gardens –much less put them in their bodies.  Your generation didn’t see any intrinsic value in mountains, pristine nature or small communities; otherwise, you would’ve never leveled mountains, stripped mined away whole ecosystems and communities merely for financial gain.  Because your generation didn’t understand or have the ‘green thing’ we’ve had to live with the consequences and develop a ‘green thing’. So here take a reusable grocery bag on me and don’t forget it next time you go shopping.  Have a nice day.”