We we'rnt "Green" in the old days.

[Varn]

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to me, that I should bring my 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 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 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. 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?

[Sporty Modder]

(sarcasticly)Yeah but just think about how efficent things are today,

[Varn]

Yep sarcastically, I remember 35 years ago, My electric bill was 15 dollars a month and electricity was about 4 cents a KWH. My first car in 1969 was an austin healy sprite. I could fill it for a dollar or two. Back then the police or feds needed a warrant to monitor your phone calls. The SDS affiliates were criminals, now they smoke dope with the president.

[GRU]

very, very good points...something i didn't really think about before

[user removed]

I got so used to my older brothers hand me down clothes, when my mother tried to get me to put on anything new I literally had a mild siezure. A wool suit would almost drive me to convulsions. To this day I only wear cotton and it needs to be washed a couple of times to make it comfortable.
I used to take my new jeans to my cousin who was a waterman. A couple of months and they were just right!
I remember my brother and I riding our bikes 7 miles down a country road, picking up bottles for 2 cents each.
I read that we throw away 40% of our food. No wonder many on this planet despise us. My plate is empty when I finish eating.

regards
Mech

[lowglider]

I don`t think that pointing fingers at anyone is a solution, we should just forgive the young lady for being ignorant and hope she learns that blaming others and giving them guilt trips is far less productive than doing something constructive.

What`s interesting is that in the old days there wasn`t the technology or science for "green" (leaded gas and no catalysts, no filters for coal factories, no waste water treatment, no studies done on different health hazzards) but there was the keeper mentality, people wanted quality stuff to keep and not just to throw away everything that`s "not new anymore".
Over here we used brown paper bags only for bread, instead of plastic bags we had either baskets or linen bags for other stuff and it was much more comfortable to carry around. I know that nowadays I can`t carry heavy plastic bags for a mile, those things really start to burn into my fingers.

Nowadays we have the technology and know-how for going green, but just like this has developed, so has commercial know-how. And companies just won`t build something to last when they can sell one-time-use products or other things that break sooner, so they can sell you another one and make more profit. And the governments get tax money from these companies, so most of them don`t really think of reducing consumption because this tax money helps keep them afloat in their humongous debts. At least the US government isn`t pretending to be green, they didn`t sign the Kyoto protocol.

So it`s on us to do it and educate those who want to be educated, mainstream "green" is mostly just to be nice and dandy, while where it is for real and is making progress, I applaud those places.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Varn

Yep sarcastically, I remember 35 years ago, My electric bill was 15 dollars a month and electricity was about 4 cents a KWH.

Right. And if you account for inflation, that $15 in 1976 (the calculator I used doesn't go to 2012) is now worth $59.30, and the $0.04/KWh would now be $0.16/KWh. My bill's typically around $40, and I pay about $0.11/KWh.

Same applies to a lot of that "we weren't green back then", unless the article was written by someone well over 100. If you're talking late '50s to early '70s, as seems likely from some of the examples, people DID jump in their 300 HP cars (remember Mustang, Camaro, GTO, and the other muscle cars, not to mention family cars with 389, 409, 427, 454 cubic inch V8s?) to go short distances. They did use gas engines to mow lawns, and those engines were powered by dirty 2-cycle engines.

[jalmir]

After reading this, I have to say ; I hate you Varn ... that made me realize how older than I thought I was!!!


lowglider ; BTW, the Koyoto protocol doesn't mean anything, look at us Canada, when the current party got into power they did their best to make it look like crap, succeeded to some extend and then "unsigned" it!

[shovel]

The story's cute and all but I'm unmoved. 1960's 3bn people made today's 7bn people, there's nothing at all "green" about that.

I have no kids (deliberately), so no diapers, no tv in the kids' room, no transportation to/from school, no extra food or clothes for kids, no school books, and no future cars or houses or sequelae of my kids' kids etc.

[Frank Lee]

It's deja vu all over again!

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...hen-16948.html