The Green Thing
At the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."
He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, they 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 they could be reused over and over. But they didn't have the green thing back then.
In her day, people walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks. But she was right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.
Back then, they washed the baby's diapers because there was no throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. But that old lady was right they didn't have the green thing back in her day.
Back then, there was 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, not the size of Scotland. Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn gas just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she was right they didn't have the green thing back then.
They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using plastic bottles. They refilled their pens with ink instead of buying a new one and they replaced the blades in a razor instead of throwing the razor away just because the blade got dull. But they didn't have the green thing back then.
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."
He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, they 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 they could be reused over and over. But they didn't have the green thing back then.
In her day, people walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks. But she was right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.
Back then, they washed the baby's diapers because there was no throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. But that old lady was right they didn't have the green thing back in her day.
Back then, there was 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, not the size of Scotland. Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn gas just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she was right they didn't have the green thing back then.
They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using plastic bottles. They refilled their pens with ink instead of buying a new one and they replaced the blades in a razor instead of throwing the razor away just because the blade got dull. But they didn't have the green thing back then.
They didn't need a computer to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space to find the nearest pizza joint.
Still, the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they didn't have the green thing back then. But given today’s dire predictions from scientists that the world has only ten years to change its way or else face the point of no return when it comes to curbing the ever-increasing global temperatures perhaps it’s time to learn a lesson or two from generations that didn’t have the green thing.
