I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a joke or serious, but it made me think...
Wasteful older generation
In the queue at the supermarket, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized to him and explained, We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."
He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, they returned their milk bottles, lemonade and beer bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the factory to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.
In our day, they walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator or lift in every shop and office building. We walked to the grocery shop and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go around the block.
Back then, they washed the baby's nappies because they didn’t have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy guzzling machine burning up 220 volts: wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
Back then, they 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, not a screen the size of the Blackpool Tower. In the kitchen, they whisked and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines to do everything for you. When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, they didn’t start up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled their fountain pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade was blunt.
Back then, people got on the bus or walked to school, instead of turning their Mums into a 24-hour taxi service.
They had one electrical point in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they 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 parlour.
But then they didn’t have the green thing back then.
Isn't it sad how the current generation laments how wasteful the old people were, just because they didn't have the green thing back then?
