Sent to me by 84 year old Ma. A riot but also poignant. Central Bankers require perpetual growth to keep the wheels from spinning off and hence, we became the disposable society with obsolescence built into everything.
The "Green Thing"
My 87 year old mother sent this to me and asked that I share it:
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much
older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic
bags are not good for the environment. The woman apologized to the
young girl 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." The older lady said that she was right – our
generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day.
The older lady
went on to explain: 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 school books. This was to ensure that
public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not
defaced by our scribblings. 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
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
blade in a r azor 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 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 smart ass 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 tattooed, multiple pierced
smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them
how much.