The Green Thing

Mizmo

Mizmo

Well-known Member
Location
Ontario, Canada
A lot of nostalgia for those of us of a "certain age"…..🤓
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Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment,.

The woman apologized to the young girl 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."

The older lady said that she was right our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day.
The older lady went on to explain: 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 scribbling.
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
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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 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 blade 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.
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Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums 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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Do make sure that the rose tinted spectacles get a good polish when looking into the past. We survived being born to mothers who smoked and drank sherry or port while they carried us and lived in houses lined with asbestos. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, bread and dripping, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, mostly because they had to, wartime rationing didn't end until 1954, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Small children at school experienced sadistic school teachers who would hit us with a cane, or threw the blackboard duster at us if they thought we weren't concentrating.

A delve into the pre-Green Thing era where cold, illness, dirt, outside lavatories, pain, shameless bullying, bigotry, unending domestic drudgery, coal fires, hand-washing, hideous food, unending trudges to and from school, snobbery, corporal punishment, teachers who might be any or all of sadistic, lecherous, useless and idle, sexual ignorance, disapproval of difference, fear of pregnancy, illegal abortions and, to a degree, boring, were all prevalent.

Divorcees, like black people and gays, had yet to be invented. If they had been, many residents would have dealt with them as capably as they did with local Jews, who were, excluded from the golf club.

So just make sure that the rose tinted glasses don't obscure the true vision of the past.
 

horseless carriage said:
Do make sure that the rose tinted spectacles get a good polish when looking into the past. We survived being born to mothers who smoked and drank sherry or port while they carried us and lived in houses lined with asbestos. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, bread and dripping, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, mostly because they had to, wartime rationing didn't end until 1954, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Small children at school experienced sadistic school teachers who would hit us with a cane, or threw the blackboard duster at us if they thought we weren't concentrating.

A delve into the pre-Green Thing era where cold, illness, dirt, outside lavatories, pain, shameless bullying, bigotry, unending domestic drudgery, coal fires, hand-washing, hideous food, unending trudges to and from school, snobbery, corporal punishment, teachers who might be any or all of sadistic, lecherous, useless and idle, sexual ignorance, disapproval of difference, fear of pregnancy, illegal abortions and, to a degree, boring, were all prevalent.

Divorcees, like black people and gays, had yet to be invented. If they had been, many residents would have dealt with them as capably as they did with local Jews, who were, excluded from the golf club.

So just make sure that the rose tinted glasses don't obscure the true vision of the past.
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Excellent points, horseless. These are also true.
 
horseless carriage said:
Do make sure that the rose tinted spectacles get a good polish when looking into the past. We survived being born to mothers who smoked and drank sherry or port while they carried us and lived in houses lined with asbestos. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, bread and dripping, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, mostly because they had to, wartime rationing didn't end until 1954, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Small children at school experienced sadistic school teachers who would hit us with a cane, or threw the blackboard duster at us if they thought we weren't concentrating.

A delve into the pre-Green Thing era where cold, illness, dirt, outside lavatories, pain, shameless bullying, bigotry, unending domestic drudgery, coal fires, hand-washing, hideous food, unending trudges to and from school, snobbery, corporal punishment, teachers who might be any or all of sadistic, lecherous, useless and idle, sexual ignorance, disapproval of difference, fear of pregnancy, illegal abortions and, to a degree, boring, were all prevalent.

Divorcees, like black people and gays, had yet to be invented. If they had been, many residents would have dealt with them as capably as they did with local Jews, who were, excluded from the golf club.

So just make sure that the rose tinted glasses don't obscure the true vision of the past.
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Hear, Hear! Well said, Horseless. I am also not one to romanticize the past.

Women and children were essentially chattel with few rights (even in the early 70s women couldn't get CCs without their husbands' permission), and were often beaten within an inch of their lives or sexually abused with no consequence to the husband/father.

And lest we pin the green shining star of virtue on our chests, let's remember who made all these changes, good and bad. That would be OUR generation and "The Greatest Generation" just above us. We chose to worship at the altar of the almighty coins of our respective realms, making virtually everything disposable, driving instead of walking, and added built-in obsolescence to appliances, and eagerly purchased every new geegaw, trinket and appliance under the sun.

The changes since the 1950s have been a mixed bag - plenty of good thrown in with the bad.
All things considered, I'll take today's life over the 1950s.
In a heartbeat.
 
Devi said:
Wow. Yeah. Very good points.

That said, I'm not giving up (or bemoaning) computers and/or the Internet. ❤️
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Oh I would not give up these things either but the whole point of the post is that the way lived then did NOT cause the "GreenThing" to happen.....
 
Mizmo said:
Oh I would not give up these things either but the whole point of the post is that the way lived then did NOT cause the "GreenThing" to happen.....
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On the contrary, I think the clerk was fully accurate when she supposedly said:
"That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

If the older woman's generation had been concerned about the environment we/they wouldn't have changed behaviors from those the older woman bragged about - or invented and marketed things that provided future generations with disposable everything.
 
StarSong said:
On the contrary, I think the clerk was fully accurate when she supposedly said:
"That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

If the older woman's generation had been concerned about the environment we/they wouldn't have changed behaviors from those the older woman bragged about - or invented and marketed things that provided future generations with disposable everything.
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and.....
The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."
 
This is all too blame-y for me.

Frankly, I recall people being concerned about the environment as far back as the '50's. Among other things, remember discussions about DDT on the TV? Discussions about GMO foods (much later)?

There are things that can be done now to improve things. Anyone who wants to improve things can go ahead and do so. In fact, that young cashier has plenty of opportunity to take some responsibility for the way things are as well, rather than pointing fingers and blaming others.

As an aside: what a great employee, to be treating her employer's customers that way. Pfft.
 
I wonder if it wasn't in the 1950s that we got away from what today is considered 'green"? In my mom & dad's day, you didn't waste anything. You did not leave an electric light on when you left the room. You saved your garbage for the "garbage men", who came around each week. Grocery bags made great schoolbook covers. They were kids of the Depression, and didn't waste anything. But in the 50s, we became the throw away generation. Everything was single use, and in the trash. I believe kids today see the mountains of our waste, and are appalled. We've grown up in the disposable society and don't notice it, anymore.
BTW, I'm not a "greenie", but before Covid, I used to my own grocery bags. Covid stopped their use, I can't believe the pile of plastic bags I now have after shopping.. And a lot of them are 'double bagged", because the plastic ones are so flimsy. That really is a huge waste.
 
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horseless carriage said:
Do make sure that the rose tinted spectacles get a good polish when looking into the past. We survived being born to mothers who smoked and drank sherry or port while they carried us and lived in houses lined with asbestos. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, bread and dripping, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, mostly because they had to, wartime rationing didn't end until 1954, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Small children at school experienced sadistic school teachers who would hit us with a cane, or threw the blackboard duster at us if they thought we weren't concentrating.

A delve into the pre-Green Thing era where cold, illness, dirt, outside lavatories, pain, shameless bullying, bigotry, unending domestic drudgery, coal fires, hand-washing, hideous food, unending trudges to and from school, snobbery, corporal punishment, teachers who might be any or all of sadistic, lecherous, useless and idle, sexual ignorance, disapproval of difference, fear of pregnancy, illegal abortions and, to a degree, boring, were all prevalent.

Divorcees, like black people and gays, had yet to be invented. If they had been, many residents would have dealt with them as capably as they did with local Jews, who were, excluded from the golf club.

So just make sure that the rose tinted glasses don't obscure the true vision of the past.
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Nothing wrong with rose tinted glasses or half-full glasses. It's one person's perspective and I respect that. From what I read, you tend to see the glass half empty.
 
Horseless carriage, I remember all those things and for most, I'm glad they're in the past. However, we survived them and I wonder how many of today's children would. We didn't go around with out brain cell glued to a "smart phone" or need to be told that if we were affected by this post, there was a woke helpline for wimps.

However, my mother did use her own shopping bag.
 
Air and water were a lot more polluted when we were young. We cleaned up the rivers by passing legislation prohibiting factories from dumping their waste into them and we cleaned up the air through advances in technology. It's the younger generations who aren't doing their part. They can't even be bothered to vote.
 
I am trying to figure out what "a certain age" is.
I do not see anything wonderful about life for poor people decades ago. A daily struggle seems to me very wearing on the soul. People died young from toil. What was good about that?

I was lucky, we had a very good life financially. Had many luxuries, but I felt sad when I saw poverty.
To be very honest I would not have liked to go without the labor saving devices and new inventions we have today, so like horseless carriage, I will not look through rose tinted glasses.
 
I save all my plastic bags then they have a huge container in the return area of Wal Mart I put them in once a month.

I save all my cardboard, cans & glass, I take that to the recycle place when my containers in the garage get full.
anymore all appliances, TV's, etc are throw away. You call for a repairman they tell you it's cheaper to buy a new one than get the old one fixed as it might take many months to get the part & it will cost 2/3's the price of a new unit.

Most appliances are only good for about 8 to 10 years. TV's maybe 7 years. So we got to blame the manufactures that are having things made in China & elsewhere for the poor quality of units.
 
Tom 86 said:
Most appliances are only good for about 8 to 10 years. TV's maybe 7 years. So we got to blame the manufactures that are having things made in China & elsewhere for the poor quality of units.
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Because our economy in America (and now Worldwide) thrives on growth, it has to thrive on consumption as expanding markets have already become...expanded. If consumer goods lasted as long now as they did in the 50s we would only have products like that in the 50s.
Nowadays corporate shareholders expect growth on their investment, that requires corporations to increase their sales. If you sell a product that lasts 20+ years then you're not going to get those customers back for...20+ years.
 
Capt Lightning said:
Horseless carriage, I remember all those things and for most, I'm glad they're in the past. However, we survived them and I wonder how many of today's children would. We didn't go around with out brain cell glued to a "smart phone" or need to be told that if we were affected by this post, there was a woke helpline for wimps.

However, my mother did use her own shopping bag.
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I think you greatly underestimate the young of today (just as our elders underestimated us). People rise to the challenge when our survival depends on it. Humans are an incredibly adaptable species.
 
horseless carriage said:
Do make sure that the rose tinted spectacles get a good polish when looking into the past. We survived being born to mothers who smoked and drank sherry or port while they carried us and lived in houses lined with asbestos. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, bread and dripping, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, mostly because they had to, wartime rationing didn't end until 1954, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Small children at school experienced sadistic school teachers who would hit us with a cane, or threw the blackboard duster at us if they thought we weren't concentrating.

A delve into the pre-Green Thing era where cold, illness, dirt, outside lavatories, pain, shameless bullying, bigotry, unending domestic drudgery, coal fires, hand-washing, hideous food, unending trudges to and from school, snobbery, corporal punishment, teachers who might be any or all of sadistic, lecherous, useless and idle, sexual ignorance, disapproval of difference, fear of pregnancy, illegal abortions and, to a degree, boring, were all prevalent.

Divorcees, like black people and gays, had yet to be invented. If they had been, many residents would have dealt with them as capably as they did with local Jews, who were, excluded from the golf club.

My Lord! And I had an idyllic time back then. Never better. and wish with all my heart we could go back to a time of live and let live without someone banning something out of existence because They think it's bad for us. 🤔
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The results of any generation are not due to monolithic attitudes and behaviors as there is always a range of competing influences. Nor is society the same everywhere even today. California versus Texas versus Alabama versus Washington DC versus Wyoming. Much of the negatives from recent generations are the result of the continuing dominant powers of Wall Street corporations and the military industrial complex, ethical elitists at universities, their armies of wealthy and wealth seekers, and the media and politicians they control. As part of the idealism of the counterculture revolution of the late 60s/70s, much negatives of what we tried to change existed long before we came of age and remain so to some extent. In terms of environmental causes, our generation was the catalyst for enormous progress and societal change, however such only goes so far effectively against the powers of Mammon. The wealth gap in particular and other ills have been exacerbated by corporate laws politicians created in the mid 80s.

What the OP's statement really is saying is the many of younger generations in news and social media now when looking back at earlier generations they did not experience, tend to sometimes put blames in the wrong places that shows a lack of understanding as to how culture and society work. Bean counters at corporations in particular will be the last to choose environmentally sound policies if there are costs in immediate product and service cycles. And that has little to do with the rest of us even today unless someone brings to light into the public their doings.
 

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