Email from Eleanor Re: the "Green Thing"

[Maria]

I got this email from a friend who forwarded it from her friend "Eleanor." Note: I had to censor the last sentence.

• Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much 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 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 scribbling.

  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 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 @@@ young person...

  Eleanor

[joasia]

Excellent post, Maria! It really brings things into perspective.

[Barbara]

SO- O - O CLEVER !
I REALLY LIKE THAT.
Incredibly well done.

Some of us remember at least some of this if not most.

[I don't recall the brown paper bag over schoolbooks. But it sounds right.]

I am amazed how smart that elderly lady is to counter all those carelessnesses of the young generation.

I could another on a different vein. Not about Conservation - but about Conversation!

This contractor was supposedly going to speak with me at my house last Friday early.
I waited and waited. No contractor.
I called to reschedule this morning.
First the phone number the secretary had left didn't work. It was never clear whether it was in a different area code.
The company didn't bother to tell the area code. I guess with cell phones, it doesn't matter whether
long distance or local. But for old phones [that is, usual phones which serve well for their purpose],
one does need to know in order to dial correctly.

The secretary answered when I dug into the phone book to get a different number for this company.
It was the same one, but she didn't even remember me after a matter of maybe a week at most.
I had to re-explain everything. They didn't even notice that the city code inspection scheduled the day before
had not taken place.

So, she looked up the representative's note left on the computer.
He had said that he came to the door, and called my number but got no answer.

I said with a little of the same tone that Eleanor's friend might have used :
"You have to realize that people from older generations do not carry cell phones around with them everywhere !
Whereas a teenager would have it and pick it up right away, someone a little older may not have a cell phone,
and certainly is not chained to it ! Why couldn't the guy have just shouted or gone around the side of the house
where I was busy working but listening carefully for his arrival ?"

There are many levels, but notice how younger generation people seem to not really be very sharp and tend to be
quite spacy. Then, too, they rely on these gadgets and assume everyone ELSE does !

As for the city inspection, the secretary said requests are sent in only online now.
Apparently, that system does not work completely well, for Thursday I had waited again ALL afternoon for the
inspector to come check that company's work to be sure it passed the code.

Back a few months ago, when the original work was done, the first thing the team did was use my electrical outlet
to plug in some gadget which later on turned out to issue out this doleful Country Music that they could not work without
apparently. I didn't feel comfortable to ask them to turn it off, even though I can't stand that DEPRESSING music which
resounded through the basement. "Wail, wail, that cowgirl done broke my heart, wail, wail, boohoo, guitar twang..."

I almost wish that there could be a couple of different countries here: one for sensible older people and another for
the brash youth of today !