A Reminder of How Wasteful Our Generation Was!

J

Just plain me

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www.butterbin.com

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 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 truly 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's. 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. 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-ass young person.:sentimental:
 

I remember returning those glass bottles for deposit, and worked in a bottling plant where they were all washed, sanitized and re-used. Long before the plastic bags, we also used the paper bags for trash, and book covers.

I grew up in a third floor apartment, which had no elevator...used the stairs every day. I baby-sat my two nephews way back then, and yes, we did use cloth diapers and didn't have the waste and pollution of the disposables used today.

My mother didn't have a dryer for the clothes, but hung them out on the wash line. In winter, we'd joke because they were stiff like there were people still inside the clothes. Those clothes lines also doubled as jump ropes for us kids to play with.

We had one small TV, and used handkerchiefs , before tissues became popular. Still use wadded up newspaper to send a package in the mail. And used newspaper to dry windows, washed with water and white vinegar.

Remember the fountain pen well, before the disposable Bic pens. Still replace the razors in our double or single edge razor blades. I walked to school everyday, and never saw a power strip as a kid. In fact, I remember seeing the first Styrofoam cup as a child, used to just see the paper cups used.

Us old folks, we're responsible for the big plastic garbage dump in the oceans, and all the other ills of the modern day world. We were such a selfish and spoiled lot, weren't we? :p Good post Just plain me...the real deal! :thumbsup:
 
I was in the hardware store a while back, and saw huge, back-pack style, gasoline leaf blower on sale for only $500! I almost fell over right there! I toyed with the idea of asking the sale-clerk how many leaf rakes $500 would buy...but, instead I just left the store shaking my head!:)

chickenleafblower.jpg
 

Great picture Seabreeze. I'll bet you that's how it all got started with Monday being wash day.
So that mess would all get over with in one day in the large cities. Does anyone know for sure?

My mother used to always do laundry on Monday, even though we lived in the suburbs, just
because ....:confused:
 
I don't remember what day my mother did laundry, don't know if it was a certain day of the week or not. I know she did her major house cleaning on Saturday, bed sheets, dusting, etc. I know because I always helped out.
 
SeaBreeze said:
I don't remember what day my mother did laundry, don't know if it was a certain day of the week or not. I know she did her major house cleaning on Saturday, bed sheets, dusting, etc. I know because I always helped out.
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Lol..I wouldn't have dared say ''I'm bored'' to my mom..I would have got a tin of polish and a cloth to do the bedroom furniture!
 
What a great opening post! It really puts the last fifty plus years in perspective doesn't it? Reading that reminded me of so many things, wringer washer's and using a stick to push the laundry through (watching out for the fingers), getting the pile of new paper book covers on the first day of school and how the entire class would sit there, folding them up so that they would fit on our books, frozen laundry...I even remember my mom washing bread bags to use in the kitchen because plastic bags were 'special' and hard to come by so you re-used them. We were also very poor so even if they were available to buy, we could never have afforded them (no credit cards for groceries).

Loved the opening post and all the following comments. Boy does this one date all of us eh?
 
Pappy said:
Monday was always laundry day for my grandmother. I remember, in the winter, the clothes would be as hard as a rock on the clothes line. Got my hand caught in the wringer rollers too. Only did it once, and once was enough.
My job was to mix the hard chunks of bluing in a bowl of hot water. Boy, I'm going way back.:rolleyes:
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Thanks Pappy., for similar memories ... Monday was laundry day on the farm for my grandmother too. It was an all day affair it seemed. . I was her little helper (?) ... The wringer washer, and everything that entailed, and hanging all the clothes on the lines outside. And the clothes were hard and stone cold on a brisk Ohio day. .. oh the memories!
 
We always saved string/twine from packages; saved any type gift wrap paper, smoothed it out folded it neatly and would use for another occasion. Glass jars were washed and used to store leftovers and anything else needed. Remember hand-me-down clothes? After they just were not wearable, they made great rags.
 
I wore hand me down clothes from both my older sisters, and my brother...and was usually a bit excited to get them. :sentimental: Still save certain things to re-use too, just like my Mom did.
 
We saved wrapping paper, too. It got ironed and either carefully folded or rolled around an empty mailing tube if one was to be had. We also ironed the ribbons.

Monday was washday at our house during the summer and during school breaks. In winter it was on Saturday, along with baking bread and cleaning house. I remember boiling the water on the kitchen stove for the washer, the blankety-blank bluing and cooking starch. We boiled the water because we didn't have hot running water, only cold. If somebody had been sick during the week, the bed linens were boiled in the copper boiler, the water poured down the drain, the boiler filled up and heated again for the washer. During the school year, I had to do the ironing either after school or in the evening. I didn't mind in the winter because it warmed up the kitchen. In the summer, I got up really early so the ironing would be done before it was too warm. On cool and/or rainy days, I'd take my time:)

We used the previous day's newspaper to wrap potato peels, coffee grounds and other kitchen trash. We didn't usually have paper bags because our groceries were delivered on Saturday afternoon in a cardboard box. When we finally did get a "super" market in our town and got paper sacks, they were saved for all kinds of uses, not the least of which was for book covers. We cut them open and ironed them just like we ironed wrapping paper.

When my kids were babies, disposable diapers had just come on the market. I hated them because they shredded.
 
This thread reminds me - I have often tried to remember what it was like washing dishes and laundry before there were detergents, especially greasy dishes and clothing.
Anyone?
 
I remember my mother using products like Ajax for the dishes, and I still use it for things today. Detergents like Fab for clothes and Spic and Span for floors and other things too.







 
Pappy said:
Once or twice a year, gramma would take up the rugs and haul them out to the clothesline. She had this big oversized wre fly swatter and beat the daylights out of the rugs. That was her vacuum cleaner.
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My grandmother used to make ''rag rugs'' out of old clothes..you cut up..looped and knotted....on a piece of sacking...

They are very popular now, and very expensive..
 
Lady said:
Fish and chips was wrapped in newspaper,now days they are in cardboard boxes,or polystyrene trays or even prestine white paper.
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yes..there was a little ''je ne sais quoi'' when fish and chips were wrapped in newspaper..they tasted much better..do you remember when they used to put ''scraps'' on top..little bits of batter?
 
Ditto to all the above! that was my life too! In olden days in Pittsburgh before the mills shut down for good, probably in other mill towns too, Monday was a good day to do laundry because the mills were shut down on Sundays and there wasn't so much black grit in the air. Was true when I lived there too. We do ''recycling'' at my apt complex, and supposedly city wide, and I try to be good about the newspapers and cardboard at least, but haven't quite gotten to the point of having 2 separate garbage cans for sorting the stuff. Another thing about the recycling - I believe some folks are making a boatload of profit out of all of it, regardless of the environment, and that doesn't set real well with me.
 
Do you find yourself being mean..for example..taking off the paper from a beautifully wrapped present..very carefully...so you can use it again?
 

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