We didn't have that "green" thing back then...

I can't resist re-posting this ... thanks to Jenny Macdonald, thanks to Marion Power ... (both on facebook):

Think on this:
At the supermarket checkout recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. I apologised and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations." 

She was right about one thing -- our generation didn't have the green thing in “our” day. So what did we have back then? 
After some reflection and soul-searching on "our" day, here's what I remembered we did have:

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. 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 shop and didn't climb into a 300HP vehicle every time we had to go two-hundred yards. 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 3 kilowatts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our day. 
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 Argyll. And a local electrician would repair it when it stopped working. We didn't bin it and buy a new one. 
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 post, 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 petrol just to cut the grass. We used a push mower that ran on human power. 
We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to the gym 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 bus, and kids rode their pushbikes to school or walked, instead of turning their parents into a 24-hour taxi service. 
We had one electrical socket 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 chippie.

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? 

Feel free to post this on so another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smarty-pants young person can add to this... ;)
Thank you!

For some great ideas about recycling and reducing litter, see here: http://www.grab.org.uk/
and why we should bother to recycle, here: 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/may/24/greenpolitics.localgovernment 
==> we're fast running out of landfill sites, for example, not to mention the waste of resources unless valuable materials are recycled.