How many of us can relate to this?....

[TNTease]

I ran across this on the internet today and it so made me smile and nod....

A story...

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 toexplain: 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?
You can pass 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.


...can I get an "Amen"?

[HB]

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.

It was a time I lived in and enjoyed .. we didn't call it the "green thing" it was normal life and I wish we could return to treating our environment with respect.
So yes ... Amen to that.

In the UK recycling was a way of life in the 1950s and 1960s. The years of wartime austerity had taught people to ‘make do and mend’ and not to waste a thing.
Produce was seasonal; for example, in winter a favourite replacement for a green salad was shredded cabbage with onion and carrot, dressed with Heinz Salad Cream â€" a 1950s version of coleslaw, and very tasty with a couple of slices of haslet or luncheon meat!  At the bread shop, loaves would be wrapped in paper tissue and at the butchers, the meat would also be sold wrapped in paper. Housewives would sometimes have their groceries delivered to the house by a boy on a bicycle with a rather large basket on the front.
The milkman would make doorstep deliveries each day in his electric milk float. Milk came in glass bottles with foil lids; after the bottle was empty it would be washed out and returned to the milkman to be used again. Many people will remember collecting the foil milk bottle tops and sending them in to the ‘Blue Peter’ Guide Dogs Appeal in 1964!
The rag-and-bone man was a regular sight on the streets with his call of ‘Any old iron’ or ‘Rag bone”. Some rag-and-bone men would push a hand cart, others might have a horse and cart. The rag-and-bone man would take old clothes, pots and pans, shoes and so on, to either sell on or to repair. Any bones collected would be sold to make glue and fertilizer. The rags were used in paper-making and the rag-and-bone man would sell any metal as scrap.
Old newspapers were also re-used, either cut up into squares as emergency toilet paper, or rolled and tied to form paper ‘logs’ to light the coal fire. Food scraps were often burned on the fire: vegetable peelings went onto the garden compost heap.

But we didnt do the "green thing" obviously ....

[inca]

Just to add to this , growing up we didnt have a washing machine, most families had a concrete sink and a large boiler on the side, with a wringer and a stick to turn the clothes around. It was lit underneath  with a flame, thus not using electricity. If you were lucky and could afford one, most families stayed warm using a kerosine heater, and on the grill of that, we could heat food and make toast.
Basically, nothing was wasted. Shopping bags were made from string and food in a supermarket was rare, as most shops were just the local fruit, fish, butcher. No such thing as take-away meals, especially ones that came in polystyrene packaging. We had one metal garbage can, not up to 5 plastic bins for each recycling, garden waste..etc. maybe thats because most things we bought were not in individual plastic packets ,  you bought 5 nails and a sink plug from a hardware store, loose, which was then placed in a paper bag to take home. Back in those days anything that was referred to as "green" was garden clippings and the grass clippings used as mulch , combined with the egg shells and scraps from cooking. I also wonder if the younger generation had to know how to use these old methods, would they? So maybe the generation complaining about us oldies can come up with the ideas to counteract the amount of packaging and waste they currently live with and appreciate , not blame the previous generations born with the best ideas . So, Tntease, yes , its an AMEN from me

[Jake]

All this reminiscing reminds me of this ................

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1by0-nkKOTs&ab_channel=JasonBonitati

[Yusif]

[TNTease]

I remember when I was very young, the milk man delivering milk to our door at my great-grandma's.  The grand and great-grandparents raised chickens for eggs and meat, and I remember when I must have been very young, we had rabbits.  We also had gardens and while I don't remember it, my mom said I used to wander through the tomatoes and pick them off the vine and eat them right then and there.  I remember when the grocery stores first started offering "paper or plastic" for your groceries to be bagged in.  My great-grandmother could take a paper grocery bag and freehand cut a pattern for a baby dress or doll clothes and when I was little many of my clothes were hand-made by great and grandmother.  My grandmother used to sew all my shorts and tops when I was little.  Chicken feed came in cloth bags, that were made with many patterns of tiny flowers and such, and the women used them for clothes for the children, or anything else you could use cloth for.

I spend a lot of time on Pinterest, and thankfully there are many many tips and tricks there for "homemade" options for so many things.  Several years ago I gave up buying so many cleaning products and started making simple homemade cleaners like water and vinegar which I use for most all-purpose cleaning.  You spend less money, you have less stuff cluttering your storage space, and it's less toxic for people and pets.  Unfortunately many times convenience wins out over thrifty practicality, so I haven't give up many conveniences of course.  But it's good not to forget the simple "home" remedies for things.