An Email for us “Old Folks” ~ Submitted by Jane Dolley

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.

            Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, which 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. 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 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 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 smart ass young people.
            We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.

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