Lesson from a senior: We didn’t have the ‘green thing’ back in our day
Editor’s note: The following was posted by an anonymous writer on Facebook. Likely British because of references to “mum” and “nappies,” the author makes some good points about a simpler time.
As I was checking out at the supermarket recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring in my own bags because plastic ones weren’t good for the environment. I apologized and explained that we didn’t have the “green thing” in our day. The cashier responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for the future generation.”
She was wrong about us not caring. And I was right about not having the “green thing.”
Or was I?
Back then, we returned milk bottles, fizzy pop and beer bottles to the store and the store returned them to the plant, where the bottles were washed, sterilized and refilled. So, the same bottles were being reused repeatedly — they were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing!
We walked upstairs because we didn’t have escalators and lifts in every store or office buildings. We walked to the shops and didn’t climb into a 300 horsepower machine every time we wanted to go two streets away. We didn’t have the green thing!
Back then, we washed the babies’ nappies — we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried our clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning 240 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes. But, we didn’t have the green thing!
Kids got hand-me-downs from their brothers or sisters and not brand-new clothing every time. But we didn’t have the green thing!
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, not a screen the size of Wales. In the kitchen, we blended or stirred by hand. We didn’t have electric machines doing everything for us. But we didn’t have the green thing!
When we packed a parcel for posting, it was wrapped in old newspapers to protect the content, not Styrofoam or bubble wrap. We didn’t have the green thing!
Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the grass; we used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working, so we didn’t need to go to the gym or health club to jump on a treadmill run by electricity. But we didn’t have the green thing!
Back then, we drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a plastic cup or bottle every time we were thirsty. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying new ones and we sharpened the blades of a razor instead of throwing them away when they went blunt. But we didn’t have the green thing!
Back then, people took buses and kids took their bikes to school or walked instead of mum being a 24-hour taxi service.
We had only one electrical outlet in each 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 a satellite 2,000 miles away in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. But we didn’t have the green thing!
Isn’t it sad that the current generation laments how wasteful we older folk were just because we didn’t do the “green thing”?
Please share this if you know another selfish old person who needs a lesson from a smarty-pants young person on conservation.