A Special: Green, Uncle Al style!

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Faldaguy
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A Special: Green, Uncle Al style!

Post by Faldaguy »

UA -- Maybe you can add a picture of the "senior" lady and the pierced, tattooed cashier to give this some flash!


From Terra Barton:
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 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 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.
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 ass 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 smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much
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Uncle Al
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Re: A Special: Green, Uncle Al style!

Post by Uncle Al »

I've seen this before and have lived about 75-80% of this story.
It is quite accurate.

As a child, milk was delivered to the house in glass bottles. They were
placed in an insulated box, next to the porch steps.
The T.V. was black & white. The "remote control" my parents used was - ME.
My parents didn't get a color T.V. until I was in college.
Heat was provided by a coal-fired furnace, in the basement.
"Air Conditioning" was open windows and fans.
Brown paper grocery bags were used as school book covers 90% of the time.

I've ridden a bus to school, and walked to school, depending on where
we were living at the time. My Dad was in construction and we moved
to different cities, where the job's were located. He was the job foreman
or supervisor. My Mom found a cheeky sign, gave it to my Dad, who
then placed it over the top of the door to the foreman's office.
It read: "Stupid-Visor's Office" The crew really got a kick out of it.

In the summer, between my Sophemore and Junior years of High School,
I worked with my dad at the job site. I operated an Allis-Chalmers HD-11
bulldozer, grading dirt up to, and around the concrete tanks and buildings.
Dad couldn't have me on payroll, so he 'charged off' a case of motor oil,
which he gave to me for use in my 1963 Chevy Biscayne.

So, "The Green Thing" is just a new name for an old concept.
The youth of today don't really understand what their parents and
grand-parents lived through. Some of the kids care, but most don't.

Thanks for bringing back memories of my youth :!:

Uncle Al
:mrgreen: :ugeek: :mrgreen:
Kilted Organist/Musician
Grand Musician of the Grand Lodge, I.O.O.F. of Texas 2008-2009, 2015-2016,
2018-202 ? (and the beat goes on ;) )
When asked 'Why the Kilt?'
I respond-The why is F.T.H.O.I. (For The H--- Of It)
rode_kater
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Re: A Special: Green, Uncle Al style!

Post by rode_kater »

Uncle Al wrote: Tue Oct 26, 2021 8:12 pm So, "The Green Thing" is just a new name for an old concept.
The youth of today don't really understand what their parents and
grand-parents lived through. Some of the kids care, but most don't.
It works both ways: the parents of today don't really understand the world of their kids. It's called a generation gap for a reason.

In the past people used less energy, recycled more, bought less by necessity, simply because it wasn't possible to do otherwise. Now we can have nice things, but have to choose not to, which is arguably the harder situation. It wouldn't even be so bad if people accepted that we need to be more careful about energy use, but no, they have to be dragged kicking and screaming all the way.

Put another way, we're screwed.

If you're not a liberal when you're young, you have no heart. If your not a conservative when you're old, you have no brain. -- someone
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