In The Mother County of Virginia’s Beautiful Northern Neck
Authorized and Paid for by the Northumberland County Republican Committee | Privacy Policy
© Copyright 2009 -
All rights reserved. Patrick J. O’Brien, Chairman
Commentary
The Green Thing
In the line at the store, the cashier told me that I should bring my own grocery
bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
I 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 -
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.
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-
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't
have the throw-
But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio,
in the house -
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 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.
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-
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 an uninformed young person.
The Green Thing