ChatterBank2 mins ago
It's new, this Green thing.....
23 Answers
This has just come to me on email - worth sharing!
In the queue at the supermarket, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."
He 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 shop or off licence. They sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized and refilled and re-used. 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.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have lifts and escalators in every shop and office building.
We walked to the local shops and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go to a supermarket.
We bought fruit and veg loose - and washed them at home. We didn't have to throw away bins full of plastic, foam and paper packaging that need huge recycling plants fed by monster trucks all day, everyday.
But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's nappies 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 the clothes.
Kids got hand-me-downs (mostly hand made or hand knitted) clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing shipped from the other side of the planet.
But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Back then shops repaired things with funny things called spare parts - we didn't need to throw whole items away because a small part failed.
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 Luton .
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 a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power and hand clippers for the hedges.
We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a brightly lit, air conditioned health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity and then drink millions of bottles of that special water from those plastic bottles.
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 plastic cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.
We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new plastic pen, and we replaced blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole plastic razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their parents 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 fish & chip shop.
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........?
In the queue at the supermarket, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."
He 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 shop or off licence. They sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized and refilled and re-used. 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.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have lifts and escalators in every shop and office building.
We walked to the local shops and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go to a supermarket.
We bought fruit and veg loose - and washed them at home. We didn't have to throw away bins full of plastic, foam and paper packaging that need huge recycling plants fed by monster trucks all day, everyday.
But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's nappies 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 the clothes.
Kids got hand-me-downs (mostly hand made or hand knitted) clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing shipped from the other side of the planet.
But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Back then shops repaired things with funny things called spare parts - we didn't need to throw whole items away because a small part failed.
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 Luton .
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 a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power and hand clippers for the hedges.
We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a brightly lit, air conditioned health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity and then drink millions of bottles of that special water from those plastic bottles.
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 plastic cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.
We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new plastic pen, and we replaced blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole plastic razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their parents 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 fish & chip shop.
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........?
Answers
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My mother used to take her own shopping bags to the shops. Things were often weighed into paper bags which could later be screwed up to help start the ( one single ) fire in the hearth. The rag-and-bone man used to come round ( like Steptoe) and take away useful stuff like jam-jars and old broken metal buckets and rags like worn-out towels, for which he found buyers. he used a horse and cart ( no depletion of the oil reserves, almost no carbon dioxide created except when man and horse breathed out ) and when the horse left its trade-mark, we rushed out with buckets to get the muck to put on Mother's roses.
and as if it wasn't 'bad' enough in Ye Olden days..... us poor kids were unconscious recyclers and knew just where the rubbish trucks would dump their stuff from the posh areas who didn't bother or were too embarrassed to take the jam jars and glass bottles back for their deposit back, we collected so many that we had to make a small trailer behind our bikes to take them back to the depot and collect what was to us a small fortune.
True and false
Glass bottles were recycled, air conditioning was almost unheard of (in the UK) fuel usage has gone through the roof and all that good stuff.
Records not so good on environmental pollution is it?
Air today is way cleaner due to reduction in coal use, there used to be lead in petrol and paint and even the pipes bringing us drinking water.
The Thames and most other major rivers were sterile and dead from pollution
People weren't all that much fitter because most of them smoked - life expectancy has risen sharply in recent years.
I think the best you can really say is it's a mixed bag
Glass bottles were recycled, air conditioning was almost unheard of (in the UK) fuel usage has gone through the roof and all that good stuff.
Records not so good on environmental pollution is it?
Air today is way cleaner due to reduction in coal use, there used to be lead in petrol and paint and even the pipes bringing us drinking water.
The Thames and most other major rivers were sterile and dead from pollution
People weren't all that much fitter because most of them smoked - life expectancy has risen sharply in recent years.
I think the best you can really say is it's a mixed bag
I try to bring some of the things from the past into the present
I try to use a broom and dustpan for small bits on the carpet rather than get the hoover out, thinking of getting one of those old fashioned box sweepers heat from the electric rings after the food is cooked heats water enough to wash up, I don't have a car but have a shopping trolly so I can get my stuff home from the supermarket.. I try to buy loose veg as much as possible, and batch cook so I save electricity, my slanket helps keep the heating down and when I am on my own hot water left in the kettle goes into a vacuum jug for a cuppa later on...
When I had a garden I had two big compost bins and a push mower and the strimmer was a home to spiders it was never used, I suppose its just about little things making a difference.
I try to use a broom and dustpan for small bits on the carpet rather than get the hoover out, thinking of getting one of those old fashioned box sweepers heat from the electric rings after the food is cooked heats water enough to wash up, I don't have a car but have a shopping trolly so I can get my stuff home from the supermarket.. I try to buy loose veg as much as possible, and batch cook so I save electricity, my slanket helps keep the heating down and when I am on my own hot water left in the kettle goes into a vacuum jug for a cuppa later on...
When I had a garden I had two big compost bins and a push mower and the strimmer was a home to spiders it was never used, I suppose its just about little things making a difference.
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