I like it every time I read it.   
       
   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 to explain:   
       
   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 that the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks   
   were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- DB 3.99 + W10 (1607)   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)