The "Green Thing".

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.270 WIN
Posts: 494
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:10 pm
Location: Midstate, Pa.
PostPosted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 9:50 pm
Being Green

Checking out at the store, the young cashier
suggested to the much 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 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 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
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 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?
PostPosted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 4:42 pm
Amen...how true !!

.270 WIN
Posts: 494
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:10 pm
Location: Midstate, Pa.
PostPosted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 8:09 pm
I miss those days!
PostPosted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 2:16 pm
They still send me an area phone book once a year...which makes for nice kindling for the fire pit in the fall. Now...that's recycling !

.270 WIN
Posts: 494
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:10 pm
Location: Midstate, Pa.
PostPosted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 2:51 pm
I cast bullets and slugs from wheel weights as my contribution!
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 11:15 am
Found a source for used, discarded wheel weights some years back...then the garage closed.

Sold them all at a gun show...made a few bucks for the trouble.

.270 WIN
Posts: 494
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:10 pm
Location: Midstate, Pa.
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 1:03 pm
These days you have to be careful, they're now using zinc for wheel weights, and zinc don't cast worth a damn!
PostPosted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 11:50 am
Copy that...

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