Yesterday I was shopping at a local.....

[Bodine]

Yesterday after shopping in our local supermarket, I was in the queue at the Check Out, and heard when the young cashier suggested to a 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 & then sighed, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. You old folks didn't do enough to save our environment for future generations."

The older lady said "Ahh yes you're right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day." She sighed then continued:
Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles & beer bottles to the shops. The shops then sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized & refilled, so those same bottles were used over & over, thus REALLY were recycled. But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Grocery stores put our groceries into brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable 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) were not defaced by our scribbles. Then we were able to personalize our books on their brown paper bag/covers. But, too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.

I remember how we walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store or office building; walked to the grocery store & didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go 200 yards.

. . . 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 & solar power really did dry our clothes back in our 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 radio or the fortunate ones had a TV in the house -- not a TV in every room. And if anyone did own a TV, it had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of a football field.

When cooking we blended & stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send by post, we used layers of 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 tap or 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, & 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 bus & kids rode bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's expensive car or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing"..

Oh and 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 leisure park.
. . . . But it so sad this current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then? . . .
I think you should forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from some smart *** 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 smart *** who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

[Hogtamer]

Tah-Dah! Thanks Bodine!! I rememember the milkman (Bryson's) delivering, setting the empties outside for pick-up. Oh, and don't forget washing out dirty diapers. When did you last see safety pins? Clothespins on the line made great bb gun targets too! Used to p/u coke bottles and sell anywhere for 2 cents each. There was a Coca-Cola bottling plant in every one-horse town that re-used those bottles too. My first homemade arrows were coke bottle caps bent around a stick for points. I do love plastic shotgun hulls though...of course we reload them on this site. BTW, Kroger still has brown paper bags as an option, if they don't, ask the manager! Second uses are; starting fires, targets, breading chicken or fish in bulk for frying, trash, and avout a million other things. Not to mention cookie tins, cigar boxes, sturdy metal coolers, ice picks and old willis jeeps you could buy for a song and still order parts from Sears! Green bark-edge lumber from the sawmill for your smokehouse or barn for ole Bessie or the chicken coup. Wow, is 62 that old? Reckon so. Cottonseed meal to bait the fishing hole, peanut hulls for the flower bed and garden. Doctors that made house calls. Church bells ringing. But we've got lots of things we didn't use to have in Georgia; fire ants, armadillos, coyotes, Mexicans, drug dealers, Obamacare and swat teams. Ain't progress wonderful?

[JSnover]

There's some evidence that plastic bags are healthier for us, if not the environment. I've seen at least one study that connected an E.coli outbreak to people reusing cloth bags.

[popper]

I brown-bagged in GS then Mom got me a lunch box that rusted out in a year. Been brown bagging ever since. And we patched the bike tire when it blew out. We don't have to wear masks to breath like China does, but they are telling us what to do?

[Geezer in NH]

I would have dressed down the little brainwashed puke myself. But that is me.

Need to tell the manager at least.

[bedbugbilly]

What can be said other than AMEN! ?

We didn't throw our socks away when they got holes either . . . we darned them. Those kids today wouldn't know what a "darning egg" was . . . they'd probably think it was some kind of old fashioned sex toy.

We didn't have a closet full of clothes that when they got worn or ripped .. . got thrown away. I don't think I had a store bought shirt until I was probably almost a teenager with the exception of one white store-bought shirt and that was saved to wear to Sunday School and Church on Sunday. My mother and grandmother made our shirts, pajamas, etc. We did have jeans . . . and the legs were always purchased longer so we'd "grow in to them". It wasn't fashionable back then to have holes in your jeans so they were patched.

Shoes? Look at the shoes these kids have today. We had one pair of "gym shoes" and one pair of "dress shoes" . . . and those dress shoes had better be polished and buffed on Saturday night for Church the next day.

We didn't have "throw away watches" either. We didn't have battery watches. We wound ours up and they lasted for years.

Our phone sat in the middle of the house - one phone - and we were on a "party line" until I was almost out of high school. We didn't have expensive cell phones of which our lives revolved around like the youngsters today . . we had the same phone for probably 40 years and you had to put your finger in and dial it . . not talk to it nor have to "update" it overtime a new one comes out.

When we tore something apart on the farm . . . yea . . . we actually had to get up and do chores before and after school . . . we saved the nails, straightened them out in the vise or with a hammer on an anvil so we could "recycle" them for the next repair job.

We didn't have power weed whips or fancy high power lawn tractors. We actually had to use a week whip which we swung back and forth by hand and had to walk behind either a wheel driven push mower or if lucky, a push gas mower . . . and I mowed many many lawns for the pricey sum of anywhere from 50 cents to $1.50 for a really big one . . and that included all the walking, gas and trimming.

For many many years, my mother canned fruits and vegetables every year that filled the cold cellar shelves and we ate those all year long when the fresh fruit or vegetables weren't in season. They were canned in reusable Mason jars. We didn't have all the "prepared" foods of today nor did we have fast food restaurants where everything is packaged up in paper, cardboard or styrofoam . . . nor did we have littered roadways where people (a lot of them younger) were too lazy to take it home and throw it away rather than toss it out the window.

During the Depression, my mother had one skirt and two blouses to wear. Her parents were divorced and my grandmother eeked out a living as a seamstress sewing for those who did have some money. My mother's clothes were made from left over material that generous customers allowed her to keep to make clothes for her kids (my mother and uncle). And let's not forget about how many kids had their clothes made from flour sacks.

Not all youngsters today are bad. Some have been brought up with morals and taught how to respect themselves and others. Unfortunately, many young people today are so self centered that they don't know the meaning of compassion for others, respect for others and even how to communicate with others.

When I was a kid, I was brought up on a farm. My folks owned a lumberyard that had been in the family. We not only had to do things on the farm, but when we got old enough (probably around 10 or 11), my Dad put us to work at the lumberyard. Many times it was unloading boxcars of lumber by hand that were stacked to the ceiling. Often times, he worked right along side of us . . . teaching the us the value of hard work and doing a job right no matter what it was.
And believe me . . on the farm, I learned how to be an expert "manure shoveler". But it also taught us respect for others and things that belonged to others.

What irritates me to no end is when you go to a store to get something and a young person waits on you and they don't even know how to count change back . . they depend on the register to tell them. An oftentimes . . they act like you, the customer, who is buying something that the profit on pays them their paycheck . . . act like you are an "inconvenience". Counting change back was one of the first things my Dad taught us when we eventually were able to work on the sales counter and wait on customers. The second thing was to always say "thank you" to the customer because without them, we couldn't exist. Today, it is very rare that you ever hear a "thank you".

I grinned when I read the OP's post. I remember getting groceries with my wife on a Friday night after work a number of years ago. We picked up some vegetables . . . one of which were several "yams". A young girl check us out and when she got to the yams, she got this perplexed look on her face and looked around in desperation for another employee who could help her. Finally I asked her . . "what's the problem". She got very frustrated and asked . "Do your really need these because I don[t know what they are?" My wife and I looked at each other and we couldn't help laughing. Finally I said . . "they are yams." Her reply . . . "what are yams". Before leaving, I leaned over after paying and quietly said . . "If you are going to work in a store, any store, learn your products so you can present some intelligence to your customer. My first suggestion would be to go to the produce department and study the fruits and vegetables . . they are all labeled."

It's kind of funny that the younger generation, like the one talked about by the OP, are so concerned about everybody being "green". I find it also odd that the present Administration whose pledge to the public was to work on being more "green", doesn't live up to what they said . . but we all know about Politicians and how to tell if they are lying . . .actually it's pretty easy . . . it's overy time their lips move. Every time I get prescriptions filled, I end up with anywhere from 10 to 14 printed pages - warnings, privacy information, etc. - all required by the wonderful new "Obama Care". And it just isn't limited to medical paperwork . . it's everything . . . Insurance paperwork, investment report paperwork, etc.

Yep . . .. I'm old and I do miss the days gone by when we were younger . . . things were just "different" and most people cared about others instead of just themselves . . . . but I guess I'm one of the lucky ones . . . I survived my childhood even though I drank many a time from a garden hose or the tin cup that was chained to the hand pump that everybody drank from.

[starreloader]

How those of us from that time past remember these things... Flour sacks, shoes that you better not wear out for a year, cloths that mom made, saving used materials for another use later, and all the other things that poor people had to do to survive ( I didn't know we were poor back then ).. Yet had a lot of fun chasing snakes, climbing over and underneath a covered bridge, fishing, swimming in the old water hole, going to a 1 room schoolhouse... I'm 70 now and do think the younger generation could use a little of what we had back then.

[dtknowles]

Yesterday after shopping in our local supermarket, I was in the queue at the Check Out, and heard when the young cashier suggested to a 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 & then sighed, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. You old folks didn't do enough to save our environment for future generations."

The older lady said "Ahh yes you're right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day." She sighed then continued:
Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles & beer bottles to the shops. The shops then sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized & refilled, so those same bottles were used over & over, thus REALLY were recycled. But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Grocery stores put our groceries into brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable 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) were not defaced by our scribbles. Then we were able to personalize our books on their brown paper bag/covers. But, too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.

I remember how we walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store or office building; walked to the grocery store & didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go 200 yards.

. . . 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 & solar power really did dry our clothes back in our 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 radio or the fortunate ones had a TV in the house -- not a TV in every room. And if anyone did own a TV, it had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of a football field.

When cooking we blended & stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send by post, we used layers of 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 tap or 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, & 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 bus & kids rode bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's expensive car or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing"..

Oh and 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 leisure park.
. . . . But it so sad this current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then? . . .
I think you should forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from some smart *** 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 smart *** who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

Funny, this happened to you yesterday but it sounds like a story I read about a month and a half ago.

Tim

[GRUMPA]

Funny, this happened to you yesterday but it sounds like a story I read about a month and a half ago.

Tim

It is..... That story has been floating around for some time.

[DerekP Houston]

There's some evidence that plastic bags are healthier for us, if not the environment. I've seen at least one study that connected an E.coli outbreak to people reusing cloth bags.

Unfortunately this is correct.....if only we had some sort of MACHINE for WASHING these cloth items.

[leeggen]

Abox of 22's cost about 85 cents and you got 50each. Out of that box of shells we could get, most of the time, 35 or 40 rabbits and maybe a couple squirels. 410's cost about2.50 abox of 25, and again we would average about 18 animals. Fished and we would dig our worms out of the hog pins cause they were fatter and worked better, or pick night crawlers up after dark and by flashlite. Yip we survived. I remember I had a couple sheep I was raising and I would gleen Grandpa's feilds of corn so I had winter feed for them.
CD

[kens]

with all the safety warnings on items nowadays, why didn't we kill ourselves as kids?
how did we all survive growing up? we were obviously unsafe in all aspects……..

[jcwit]

with all the safety warnings on items nowadays, why didn't we kill ourselves as kids?
how did we all survive growing up? we were obviously unsafe in all aspects……..

Actually many didn't, that is why today's average life span is must longer.

[Mk42gunner]

Funny how the youngsters are all hot on "Going Green," until it comes time to put some effort into it.

My daughter was always after me to recycle, which I'm not saying is really bad; but when I suggested she actually use the clothes line to dry her clothes, it was too much effort and took too long.

Robert

[MaryB]

All the idiot labels were not that big of a factor(and I know kids who read it then do it anyway because they are brain dead). Advances in medicine are what extended our lifespans.

When I was growing up I taught myself electronics by taking things apart and fixing them. I got zapped plenty of times but it was also a learning experience that I did not repeat again! We also hunted and fished as a family, tended the garden in town at our house and the 5 acre family garden on the farm that 5 families lived off of. Canning and freezing things were a way of life, we had 2 huge chest freezers in the basement and a very large cold room that was unheated and got down to the mid 30's in winter.

I give my friends grandson some credit. He likes riding bikes and knows grandpa can't afford to buy him new ones so he scavenges for ones that are thrown away. He pits together bikes from the parts and has sold quite a few to other kids in town to make a little money for the few new parts needed like inner tubes. He also scraps out old appliances and separates all the metals until him and grandpa have a trailer filled with barrels of copper, brass, aluminum... then they run to the scrap yard and sell it. Grandpa gets 75% because he provides the car, trailer, and gas and he gets 25%. For a kid with a speech impediment and ADHD he has done well running his own little scrap business at 14 years old! He has a jeep he wants to fix up for when he gets his license. Grandpa told him he had to pay for it himself so he set out to do just that and has done a lot of work on it!

Actually many didn't, that is why today's average life span is must longer.

[HeavyMetal]

I was going to post a tirade on how stupid young people are, but someone would mention we were all young, and dumb, once in our lives!


The kids today just haven't been lied to enough by their government to know how to distinguish between truth and Bull! Give them time they will learn but most likely not until all of their college education loans are called due, LOL!

In the end history repeats itself and they will get the same sneering attitude from there younger generation and, sadly, no one will have learned anything from making the same mistakes over and over.

[jcwit]

All the idiot labels were not that big of a factor(and I know kids who read it then do it anyway because they are brain dead). Advances in medicine are what extended our lifespans.

Yes, to a point.

How bout seat belts, air bags, blaze orange for hunters, removal of lead in paint, safer toys "remember all the cuts we used to get from the sharp metal toys?", helmets for bikers "either kind", the list is longer than I have time for.

All the idiot labels were not that big of a factor you claim. Support that claim.

Would you rather go back to the turn of the last century? Manure filled streets, your food covered with flies in the summer, people living without hands or arms because of the lack of safety devices on machinery.

[MaryB]

Who said go back to horses? When I was a kid in the 60's stuff was not covered in warnings! We all survived quite well!

Why is it liberals go to the extremes instead of being rational in discussions?

[dolfinwriter]

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 smart *** who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

Amen brother, to that last! I am so disgusted when I get handed my receipt with a wad of crumpled bills and a pile of change, rather than having it counted back to me the way that I learned how to do it.

And when I have an amount due of $12.18 and the stupified look on their face of "What do I do with this?", when I hand them a 20 and three ones so that I can get a ten back instead of a five and two ones, or especially seven more ones to cram into my wallet...

[edler7]

When I was a kid, my buddy lived about a block from the local Dodge dealer. We would dig around in the trash pile and pull out junk generators and starters. We'd take them to his house and scrap all the copper out of them. Occasionally we would get a radiator, and that was a GOOD day. We would do this all year, then around the end of June we would haul it to the junk yard and sell it for scrap. That is how we made our firecracker money for the 4th of July.

We we didn't know we were "green", but we sure got dirty.