Going Green Back In The Day

I ran across this today and thought it was worth sharing. It bought back some pretty good memories for me, maybe it will for some of you too. It's not so much a rant as an observation I believe. Just something to think about....

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?

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Originally posted by alfa1

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Star for the effort you put into tracking down and posting all those links. I actually didn't even do a search since this came in an email. I was not under the impression that the sender came up with this themselves, so I am not sure why I skipped the search. It was/is poor form for sure. (honesty is always the best policy so I will not waste time saying I searched when I did not) I enjoyed it so much, I rushed to share it.

I apologize to the mods and others for being lazy. I normally do search and I understand if this needs to be shut down.

Recycling threads...

We never did that back in my day..

Originally posted by winofiend
Recycling threads...

We never did that back in my day..

I call BS. Recycling threads is almost older than the internet itself...

I did apologize!

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


Well I'm glad you didn't use search. This "repeat" is not at all like the dozens of news stories on the same thing that tend to crop up one after another over the course of several days. Those other threads were a year or more old and while I do sometimes browse some forums and read older threads, it's not a regular thing. I never saw those old green ones. I imagine that for others as well this may be the first time seeing this particular story. Nice bit of recycling.

Although some of them are not things I ever did I can relate to several of them including the many reuses for paper grocery bags, just one tv, and using a manual push mower (although I grew up with gas-powered mowers I went a little retro when I had a small yard but an even smaller bank account). What some call being green now, was either all that was available or just being frugal when I was in my 20s-30s. Of course when a couple of my kids wanted to "be green" they turned to mom for some ideas on how to do things the old-fashioned way.

I swear, I would have missed so much if it wern't for repeated threads like this. I seem to catch a lot of topics after it has been posted a few times. And if a topic is old, it is a welcomed thing to see it anew.

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


Sometimes I get the impression that some people have read and catalogued every ATS thread ever written--standing by to consult their list and "throw the book," as it were, at the "retread thread" offender at the drop of a scarf. (No offense intended, alfa1.)

But even on those rare days that I have time to kill, it's not my habit to go deep-reading ancient, obscure threads.

If it's new to me, it's new to me. If you've already read it--fine--you're not required to read it again. Go look for something you haven't read. I mean, I can understand if it's something like--I don't know--the death of a public figure, where you have 300 people posting the same 3 goddamn news articles, one on top of another on top of another, as if they hadn't noticed or even imagined that 299 other idiots might have posted the same stupid article .... but don't get me started.

Anyway, it's new to me. Thanks, Kanga....

Originally posted by Kangaruex4Ewe

Originally posted by winofiend
Recycling threads...

We never did that back in my day..

I call BS. Recycling threads is almost older than the internet itself...

I did apologize!

Don't worry, I'll send you a new sarcasm detector for Christmas!!!

Originally posted by winofiend

Originally posted by Kangaruex4Ewe

Originally posted by winofiend
Recycling threads...

We never did that back in my day..

I call BS. Recycling threads is almost older than the internet itself...

I did apologize!

Don't worry, I'll send you a new sarcasm detector for Christmas!!!

Maybe we both need new smileys?? Neither worked for either of us.

reply to post by AhsoVaniva


I am glad you enjoyed it. I know what you mean on the frugal front as well. More often than not, I am "green" because I am running low on green. I guess every generation has to blame the previous generation for something... It's kind of like a rite of passage I suppose.

Originally posted by Night Star
I swear, I would have missed so much if it wern't for repeated threads like this. I seem to catch a lot of topics after it has been posted a few times. And if a topic is old, it is a welcomed thing to see it anew.

I catch a lot of stuff here like that as well. Somebody will pull up 50 related threads and I have missed every one of them somehow or another. I guess that's how I recycle threads. I am glad you liked it!

reply to post by Ex_CT2


You are more than welcome Ex. Thank you for your post. It makes me feel like my screw up is a little less of a screw up since you and a few others didn't mind reading it for the first or second time.

Spare us the sanctimony. You may not of been green back then, but you certainly had no problem with the job for life, secure financial future, free university education (UK), cheap gas rates, cheap housing and other goodies you now wish to deny the younger generation, so no one messes with your pension and winter fuel payments and free buss passes.