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The Revenoor, a most discerning and astute gentleman from out west, sent this one
about recycling...

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she
should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't really good for the
environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my day."

The 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. 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 school books. 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. But too bad we didn't do the green thing
back then.

We walked up the 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 throw-away kind.
We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts --
wind and solar power really did dry 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, never
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 2,000 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?

I was asked to please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in
conservation from smart-alecky young people. We don't like being old in the first place,
so it doesn't take much to set us off.
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