Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older

woman that she should bring her own shopping 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 cashier 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 its

day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop 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. 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 in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every shop

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 nappies 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 county of Yorkshire .

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 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 water from a fountain or a tap when we were thirsty instead

of demanding a plastic bottle flown in from another country. We

accepted that a lot of food was seasonal and didn’t expect that to be

bucked by flying it thousands of air miles around the world. We

actually cooked food that didn’t come out of a packet, tin or plastic

wrap and we could even wash our own vegetables and chop our own salad.

But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the tram or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to

school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi

service. 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 2,000 miles out in

space in order to find the nearest pizza 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 smart-ass young person.

Remember: Don’t make old people mad. We don’t like being old in the

first place, so it doesn’t take much to piss us off.