We didn't have the green thing

icedancer2theend

Verified User
Having grown up in the 60's this is how my parents lived- I remember my little sister and I collecting coke bottles to trade in for pocket change. I had not thought about that in a long while~ Imagine if we lived life with only half of the things mentioned.



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, lemonade 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 240 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 Texas. 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 gasl 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 tap 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 thing just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the tram, train or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums 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?
 
a nice article to help you live in denial and wash away your guilt. Baby boombers are the worst generation ever, they have fucked us over time and time again, and they need to die because they are so outdated.
 
a nice article to help you live in denial and wash away your guilt. Baby boombers are the worst generation ever, they have fucked us over time and time again, and they need to die because they are so outdated.

TESTIFY BROTHER GRIND!
 
Having grown up in the 60's this is how my parents lived- I remember my little sister and I collecting coke bottles to trade in for pocket change. I had not thought about that in a long while~ Imagine if we lived life with only half of the things mentioned.



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, lemonade 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 240 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 Texas. 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 gasl 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 tap 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 thing just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the tram, train or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums 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?


More patented sanctimonious blather from our resident expert on sanctimonious blather...ID!
 
a nice article to help you live in denial and wash away your guilt. Baby boombers are the worst generation ever, they have fucked us over time and time again, and they need to die because they are so outdated.

I realise you are being somewhat facetious but you "millenials" would be nothing if us baby-boomers hadn't invented every friggin thing you hold dear,
from sensimillia to the fucking internet. Oh, and that bong you like to snuggle up with. And your freaking i-pad, i-phone, i-pod, i-touch etc. Back in the day, you had to hold your own, no one else was gonna hold anything for you.
 
Excellent OP, ID!

I remember when the old paper sacks for groceries (biodegradable and recyclable) were used for hundreds of things, my mom had a pantry full. They made all kinds of things... suitcases, fruit baskets, gift wrap, rain hats, halloween costumes, picnic baskets, garbage bags, temporary cat housing, flaming shit prank... ;)
 
We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 240 volts - wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days.

240 volts says nothing about the actual energy requirements of the machine.

Anyway, people back in the day were pretty wasteful. You shouldn't look at things with these rose tinted glasses. Average energy use per capita has actually gone down somewhat in recent years - however, because of rising population, total energy use is still ballooning.

Moreover, if you weren't wasteful back then, it was because you couldn't be. There was no real social conciousness about the issue - and why should there have been? You didn't know what we know now.
 
Actually, now that I think about it, per capita energy use is probably declining mostly because of high energy prices, not because of green conciousness. The green movement has unfortunately not had much of an effect on actual energy usage, outside of those things which cost the consumer little to nothing to change (so it doesn't even touch industrial usage, which is the majority of waste, and barely touches household waste). We are again become less wasteful only because we can't afford to be wasteful anymore.
 
Excellent OP, ID!

I remember when the old paper sacks for groceries (biodegradable and recyclable) were used for hundreds of things, my mom had a pantry full. They made all kinds of things... suitcases, fruit baskets, gift wrap, rain hats, halloween costumes, picnic baskets, garbage bags, temporary cat housing, flaming shit prank... ;)

Did you ever use old newspapers to make fire starters? Every fall we would create folded bricks from recycled news papers and then dip those in candle nub wax (from candles that were burned down to the nub). Greeners are just lame millennial neurotics who think they have reinvented the wheel.

The brown paper shopping bags and newspapers were the best recyclable "craft" material ever invented- Then there were old TV guides! Did you ever make a folded TV Guide Christmas tree and spray paint it gold or silver?
 
240 volts says nothing about the actual energy requirements of the machine.

Anyway, people back in the day were pretty wasteful. You shouldn't look at things with these rose tinted glasses. Average energy use per capita has actually gone down somewhat in recent years - however, because of rising population, total energy use is still ballooning.

Moreover, if you weren't wasteful back then, it was because you couldn't be. There was no real social conciousness about the issue - and why should there have been? You didn't know what we know now.

Like all young people you think the current ideas are a reflection of your own consciousness- they are not, like most things, they are borrowed. Conservationism is as old as our nation. Neurotic environmentalism is the modern mutated version, that is representative of its neurotic advocates.
 
Like all young people you think the current ideas are a reflection of your own consciousness- they are not, like most things, they are borrowed. Conservationism is as old as our nation. Neurotic environmentalism is the modern mutated version, that is representative of its neurotic advocates.

Yes, you didn't have environmentalism, and that was the problem. I suppose you had some conservationism, as it became necessary when we bought up the west around the time of Teddy Roosevelt. But it's a bigger issue today.

It's not like we have no worry of a nuclear apocalypse in the modern age, but I wouldn't claim that it's as big of a deal today as it was in yours.
 
Excellent OP, ID!

I remember when the old paper sacks for groceries (biodegradable and recyclable) were used for hundreds of things, my mom had a pantry full. They made all kinds of things... suitcases, fruit baskets, gift wrap, rain hats, halloween costumes, picnic baskets, garbage bags, temporary cat housing, flaming shit prank... ;)

I loved to make popcorn in a big pan, on the stove, dump it in a big paper sack, add some salt, and then shake it up.
Best popcorn in the world.
 
Excellent OP, ID!

I remember when the old paper sacks for groceries (biodegradable and recyclable) were used for hundreds of things, my mom had a pantry full. They made all kinds of things... suitcases, fruit baskets, gift wrap, rain hats, halloween costumes, picnic baskets, garbage bags, temporary cat housing, flaming shit prank... ;)

Wow! Reusing grocery bags! Who's ever heard of such madness!
 
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