SUPERMAX-INE!

"We Didn't Have the Green Thing"

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested the older woman 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 clerk  responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation didn’t care enough to save the environment for future generations." The cashier was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in our day or didn't call it "green".

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, 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 or elevator 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 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 those early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young cashier was 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 plastic cup or 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 bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked -- instead of turning their moms 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. 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 pizza joint.

But the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then? Please forward this to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in con-servation from a smart ass young person.

(Ribbet!)

I received this in an email from my Yahoo political group, so I'm not sure who wrote it--but they were spot-on! (And it sounded SO like Maxine!)