our country

[el dub]

And how its advancing. Sorry if this is in the wrong area.

                                                                                     ARE YOU "GOING    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 our 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, 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 bag but 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?


 


Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smartass 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.


 


Stupid little shit.

[polywideblock]

   so who remembers the brown bag loosing its ass on the way to the car spilling your groceries all over the car park ?plastic shopping bags were a wonder of "modern" science   were and still are used as garbage liners so they get recycled  at least once 

[Steve P.]

Actually I like the convenience of the plastic bags, but I do prefer the paper bags. For one, and let me explain a bit, I am sick of the plastic bags blowing all over the place. I know this is all about people taking proper care of their garbage, but the amount of people that just don't care anymore has grown to ridiculous numbers. I don't ever remember seeing paper bags blowing around the neighborhood when I was young.

In 94' when we moved to Florida, we were very happy to see that everything was green and well kept and you didn't see litter all over everywhere. Here we are 20 years later and I can't tell you how much crap I see and pick up from my yard all of the time. I stopped for coffee at a fast food joint last week and while waiting at the window I witness a younger woman sitting in a parking spot first dump the lid from her drink out the window of her car and then her ashtray. I layed on my horn to get her attention. It did!! She stuck her head out the window and basically looked at me as if to say: WHAT??? The manager came to the window thinking I was pissed due to waiting, but quickly saw that I was pointing at the ground outside her car door. He told me that just the day before while handing someone their order, the passenger dumped some garbage out the passenger side window right in front of him!!  He was fuming!!!

He walked out to her car and told her that she was on camera dumping her garbage on the ground and if she didn't pick it up he would have the police fine her for littering. She was cleaning it up as I drove off. But the manager told me as I pulled up that they don't even have a camera out there but he wishes they did.

So I believe if everyone would check themselves we wouldn't have near the issues going on and we would certainly have a nicer life.

I'll take the paper. Every bit of it is recyclable and biodegradable.   

[draftingmonkey]

I find it amazing how much trash the "green" generation just tosses out of their cars. Part of the problem is parents that taught by example that it was OK, the rest is pure laziness. Love it when someone decides it is fine to dump their ashtray in the parking lot.  I guess all the toxins that are found is cigarette butts are OK. Too many Americans are lazy and find it easier to tosh their trash out than to haul it home. I was in Japan many years ago and was impressed with how clean it was. People were more responsible and the laws were tougher. Maybe what we need here.

[Chad L. Magee]

  so who remembers the brown bag loosing its ass on the way to the car spilling your groceries all over the car park ?plastic shopping bags were a wonder of "modern" science   were and still are used as garbage liners so they get recycled  at least once 

In my research lab, they all get "upcycled" into carbon nanomaterials (nanotubes, fullerenes, etc.).....

[polywideblock]

I find it amazing how much trash the "green" generation just tosses out of their cars. Part of the problem is parents that taught by example that it was OK, the rest is pure laziness. Love it when someone decides it is fine to dump their ashtray in the parking lot.  I guess all the toxins that are found is cigarette butts are OK. Too many Americans are lazy and find it easier to tosh their trash out than to haul it home. I was in Japan many years ago and was impressed with how clean it was. People were more responsible and the laws were tougher. Maybe what we need here.

not just Americans   the "green " generation just dump their Maca's leftovers /rubbish/ashtrays  out the door when sitting at the traffic light       and then they will shake their heads at me for driving a "gas guzzler " hypocrites the lot of them 

[bull]

I remember sitting with my wife one day eating lunch in the parking lot of Wendy's when a woman pulled up next next to us in another car with two guys. During their meal the woman tossed a wrapper out her window onto the ground. I opened my door, walked around the car, grabbed the wrapper and tossed it back inside her car and into her lap. I then walked back to my car and sat down to finish lunch. They must have thought I was too crazy to mess with because they didn't say a single word, and no more trash got tossed out their windows.

[dual fours]

Anybody remember an old commercial with the old Indian (feather not dot) watching people throwing trash around and then a tear came to his eye? Everything is disposable and the slobs are only going to get worse.

[Steve P.]

I absolutely remember the Indian with the tear. Back then there was a national campaign to KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL.  Even the garbage trucks and city buses had billboards saying that. I think we need that again..  

Bull, I salute you for doing that and agree that they probably thought you were nuts. Fact is they should have been ashamed!!

As far a gas guzzlers go, I agree that we do add plenty of crap to the air we breath. It is not the best of all choices for mother Earth, but at least most of our gas hogs are weekenders and not daily drivers going an hour each way to work and home. And the only thing we leave on the road is some rubber. lol...

[myk]

Yup, only today's people are enlightened enough to know what's good for this planet; everyone else before today's modern, avant garde citizen is just a meat eating, knuckle dragging brute that raped and destroyed this planet to the sad state that it is in today.  Thank the heavens for the green movement and all of the heaven-sent young people who are saving this planet one shopping bag at a time.  

[Old Moparz]

I remember sitting with my wife one day eating lunch in the parking lot of Wendy's when a woman pulled up next next to us in another car with two guys. During their meal the woman tossed a wrapper out her window onto the ground. I opened my door, walked around the car, grabbed the wrapper and tossed it back inside her car and into her lap. I then walked back to my car and sat down to finish lunch. They must have thought I was too crazy to mess with because they didn't say a single word, and no more trash got tossed out their windows.

Try that in a stand your ground state & you might get a gun blast to your face. 

[bakerhillpins]

I absolutely remember the Indian with the tear. Back then there was a national campaign to KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL.  Even the garbage trucks and city buses had billboards saying that. I think we need that again.. 

I totally remember that! Wow does that bring back memories. I suspect that the PC police might get up in arms about running that now.   

Bull, I salute you for doing that and agree that they probably thought you were nuts. Fact is they should have been ashamed!!

As far a gas guzzlers go, I agree that we do add plenty of crap to the air we breath. It is not the best of all choices for mother Earth, but at least most of our gas hogs are weekenders and not daily drivers going an hour each way to work and home. And the only thing we leave on the road is some rubber. lol...

on both counts!         Good for you bull!   

[dual fours]

So you do remember me?
    http://nj1015.com/iron-eyes-cody-the-crying-indian-commercial-video

[Steve P.]

That's the one!!!  ^^^^   

[moparsr2fast]

There are few things more fun then oh so slowly passing a Prius on the highway in this loud, fuel guzzling machine...