My generation didn't do the green thing.

a reply to: Infinitis

...." because her generation grew up and designed this mechanical world of waste. "

That " Mechanical World of Waste " as you describe it was a Necessary Evil Back in the Days of the more Primitive Technologies that dealt with Waste Disposal . The Mind Set was one of Production and Consumption when it came to Economic Matters which was Considered a Little More Important than the Environmental Concerns of the day . Different Times Required Different Solutions ........And So it Goes......

Man ... there was nothing better than climbing into sheets that had been hung out to dry on the clothesline. Remember having to fold a lip onto those brown paper bags before lining the can?

So many memories of 'the good old days'. Thanks for that!!

a reply to: Snarl

Remember having to fold a lip onto those brown paper bags before lining the can?

Remember how those bags would get wet and everything would fall out onto your feet?

a reply to: Phage

I wish I was around when you were young. I would've told you not to set them in anything wet.

a reply to: Greathouse

No, it was the wet stuff that went in the can they were being used to line.

Of course, the condensation from the ice cream carton on the way home from the store didn't help either.

originally posted by: Greathouse
I'm at the family get together for memorial day weekend. My dad showed me an email he received and it amazed me on how much sense it made. I thought I would share it with ATS. It seems it proves that there is always two sides to any discussion.

I will post the article in it's entirety it is rather long so the opening is short but it does express my feelings somewhat.

Being Green
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 our 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 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...

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off...especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced know it all who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

The highlighted part also expresses my opinion. Of course anyone that's interacted with me realizes that. Lol

source

I'm not doing a posting and run just a little busy today. I will catch up with my replies later.

All you are saying is that the rise in consumption/capita, disposable goods/capita, lifestyle/capita, etc, has become an unsustainable level... And in the past it wasn't so due to in many ways the inability of production systems to match it, and lowered incomes for many.

The whole point of sustainability and "being green" is that now increased population, coupled with far more production, consumption, and waste, is killing the environment. Your very same old people now are NOT doing what they were doing 50 years ago on average.

The whole "let's just live and it will all work out and the environment will be fine" isn't going to cut it, and thinking so is naive.

Your point doesn't work. Currently, virtually all generations are living unsustainably within developed countries.

Moreover, even in the previous generations you are trying to idolize, the human impact/capita within developed countries multiplied by all humans (if developing countries had the same level) was too high on the environment for the Earth to sustain once we reach 8-10 billion people, which we will.

I swear anti-environmentalists always come up with the most mis-informed reasons to mock the green movement.

a reply to: Greathouse

This seems like someone/s just cognitively dissonantly taking it very personal that they may be considered to be partly responsible for problems of the world and attempting to declare their innocence. Which is their right, and they are right. But that doesnt mean since the industrial revolution there hasnt been a heck of a lot of exponential amount of pollution and environmental degradation which were not produced by the humans just coming of age today.

a reply to: Phage

No, it was the wet stuff that went in the can they were being used to line.

I normally wipe out the can before I put the paper bag in.

See the key for those items at the store was to ask for double bags then hold from the bottom. The truly ungifted where the people to did not hold from the bottom.

a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

No all the letter was saying was quit being so smug.

It's a nice little attempt at a guilt trip, but the older generations do have to remember something -- they let the times change first, not us. We were born into it. They had the original eco-friendly ways, then tossed them to the wayside for conveniences. Convenience foods, convenience products, cheap goods that break fast, etc. This whole mess of throw-away consumerism is, to be blunt & utterly honest, the fault of a previous generation, not the teens/20-somethings/30-soemthings trying to undo all this crapping where we eat.

If you like the way it used to be when you were young, make it happen again. Don't snub the kids trying to do exactly what you used to have, help them achieve it. Or is the "older & wiser" idiom bunk?

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Snarl

Remember having to fold a lip onto those brown paper bags before lining the can?

Remember how those bags would get wet and everything would fall out onto your feet?

LOL Now that you mention it. I remember the bottoms of those anodized yard cans rotting out too. One day, the garbage man would just take off with 'em. You got the message about what to do on your own ... or suffered your lack of common sense.

These days, all that learning we did 'back then', makes you wonder if it was worth the effort.

originally posted by: Greathouse
a reply to: mc_squared

There is the opinionated smugness that was the point of this whole thread.

I provided several very explicit links and examples of this manipulation happening behind the scenes.

I also never generalized an entire generation as dumb, I simply said these shills target older generations – and again posted direct proof of that. It is happening and it is a fact, so if you deem the pointing out of facts as “smugness”, then I think that’s your problem not mine.

Right before the part you quoted me on I also explained how young people are manipulated as well, but you just ignored that so you could pretend I’m peeing on old people everywhere.

On the contrary your OP generalized the entire “current generation”, painted it with silly stereotypes, and used these devices to marginalize a totally positive movement.

I’m merely warning you this is exactly the sort of nostalgic claptrap industry shills use to manipulate older generations towards anti-environmentalism. But it seems those observations have hit a little too close to home, which is why you seem to be taking them so personally.

I think I know exactly where the real smugness is coming from here. But I’m just trying to deny ignorance, not coddle egos, so rationalize it any way you want if it makes you feel better.

Old people don't know anything. They smell like feet and can't run very fast. And they don't know how to text right or anything.



Every generation harps on the previous one, and every previous generation chides the younger generation for their foolishness.

Everything in the OP is true.

And that same generation used to dump ashtrays from moving cars, toss litter and make Indians cry. (remember that?)

The older generations used lead-based paint and while the chips were tasty, they didn't do much for your mental . . . . . . . what was I saying?


*winks*

It's all good. The best revenge will be the Millenials harping to the youngsters in 40 years! "Back in my day, we had to use our fingers to text! We didn't have AI's built into our brains!"

a reply to: Nyiah

Nyiah ... I admire your contributions ... I really do. Would that we were able to meet up for your 60th birthday. I wonder what I might glean from that encounter.

originally posted by: beezzer
It's all good. The best revenge will be the Millenials harping to the youngsters in 40 years! "Back in my day, we had to use our fingers to text! We didn't have AI's built into our brains!"

I always wonder what the heck kids will be listening to in 40 years that will offend our gangsta rap/horrorcore/death metal generation. *terrified to think about it*

originally posted by: mc_squared

originally posted by: Greathouse
a reply to: mc_squared

There is the opinionated smugness that was the point of this whole thread.

I provided several very explicit links and examples of this manipulation happening behind the scenes.

I also never generalized an entire generation as dumb, I simply said these shills target older generations – and again posted direct proof of that. It is happening and it is a fact, so if you deem the pointing out of facts as “smugness”, then I think that’s your problem not mine.

Right before the part you quoted me on I also explained how young people are manipulated as well, but you just ignored that so you could pretend I’m peeing on old people everywhere.

On the contrary your OP generalized the entire “current generation”, painted it with silly stereotypes, and used these devices to marginalize a totally positive movement.

I’m merely warning you this is exactly the sort of nostalgic claptrap industry shills use to manipulate older generations towards anti-environmentalism. But it seems those observations have hit a little too close to home, which is why you seem to be taking them so personally.

I think I know exactly where the real smugness is coming from here. But I’m just trying to deny ignorance, not coddle egos, so rationalize it any way you want if it makes you feel better.

Silly me how could I've been so wrong. There's no way that reply could in anyway be speaking ill of the older generation. I do apologize you're 100% right! (Sigh)

a reply to: Nyiah

Well Said.......and Guess what?....as a teenager of the 70s, the old folks (WW1 mob, those not already dribbling away in old folks homes or dead) said Exactly the same things to my generation.

As a 14 year old casual in my first job at a supermarket, I hated those paper bags, you'd fill them up, go to pick them up, then everything would fall out the bottom. Then you would have old ladies tell you you did it all wrong, the cans in this one, had to wrap the icecream etc in paper so it wouldnt soak the bag etc etc....you young kids got it easy now .

I think it was similar in the US, but back then we had little 3' steel (then plastic) trash cans (like WWE uses) for our household rubbish, the trash man/garbos use to run along the street following the rubbish trailer and threw the rubbish in the trailer as it went along....if your trash can was too heavy, he left it!!!!.
Nowdays you have 3 huge bins with mechanized trucks to wip them up.
So what did we do with any excess rubbish?.......We burnt it!!!
Yes every house (in the World) had its own furnace.....the bane of the washing days.
Usually Sat or Sun you would light the furnace and burn everything that didnt go in the bin, paper, plastic (my favorite) etc etc standing there breathing in the fumes....mmmm lovely.

Most of the weekend smog came from furnace day.....cities were blanketed with blue smoke....

Of course in the 70s we had glass milk bottles, delivered to your door, and recycled. The bread and bun man use to deliver to your door....ever had fresh warm bread in the morning?.....no it doesnt exist anymore in the Sophisticated World.

Back then the gutter was the rubbish bin for many ( not me tho)....can, bottles, cigarettes, paper you name it, it was throw out the car window......big cities like NY and LA, the streets were covered in rubbish. Drive in the country and the grass verge was a rubbish tip, and the roads, smashed glass.

Of course, there were only 3.5 billion people on Earth in the 70s.

It was my generation that helped clean up this mess, and some of the Post WW2 Baby Boomer oldies.

Tho yes....many of the 60s Hippies discovered greed, and sadly even some of the 70s teens went to the Dark Side (your fault G Lucas).....yes Im looking at you Gates, Jobs, etc etc.

So keep the faith youngin........recycle more and walk more and save the World.....for us oldies to enjoy .

Oh look, another bitter old fart complaining about young people. I wish you old fogies all the best in your retirement homes, I hear bingo is all the rage!

originally posted by: HenryLee
Oh look, another bitter old fart complaining about young people. I wish you old fogies all the best in your retirement homes, I hear bingo is all the rage!

I think it would be nice if the younger generation took care of the older generation for the same amount of time.

So for 26 years, you have to allow us to eat whatever we want, we get to stay up as long as we want, not go to work, sit around and play those video games and then ask for money and expect you to pay for our health insurance.

But if you want to send us to the homes when we become too much of a burden, either emotionally or financially, then we only have ourselves to blame because we were the ones that should have taught you respect for your elders.

On behalf of old farts everywhere, I'd like to apologise for doing such a crappy job.

a reply to: beezzer

I'd give you a thousand stars if I could but can only give you the one. The other 999 are there in spirit.