Being Green

“Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the 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 f
or future generations.” 

She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its 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 and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were truely 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 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 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. 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.”

(I totally love this)

Those days,
We didn’t have computers, internet, playstation.
We didn’t have Astro, not even a tv with remote control.
We didn’t have highways.
We didn’t have mobile phones.
We didn’t have digital cameras and video cams.

Life was simpler, more challenging.
We wrote letters and posted them.
We played outdoor games and board games.
We watched tv with only 3 channels - RTM 1, RTM 2 and TV3.
We travelled long distances along dusty trunk roads.
We queued up with bags of coins for the public phones.
We bought films for cameras and needed to get them processed to see the images.

But we were resilient, hardworking and tough.
We worked hard in school, read the books, handed in our homework on time.
We dared not skip school or classes.
We had strict teachers who didn’t hesitate to use the long rottan canes.
We dared not negotiate with the teachers for less work.
We stayed up late to complete our homework.
We didn’t get scholarships or loans like PTPTN but we managed.
We typed long assignments with the rickety old typewriters.
We learned to survive.

Now,
when we said,
to our children,
who’d demand special gifts for every A they score in UPSR,PMR, SPM,
who’d insist on the latest mobile phone or sulk in silence,
who’d complain about hardworking but strict teachers,
who’d hand in shoddy work after a week’s notice
or pretend that they’ve left the books at home when asked by the teacher,
who’d throw tantrums if the internet is down for an hour,
“Consider yourself lucky, life was tougher during my days!”
They’d roll their eyes and say,
“Here they go again! Talking about the ‘when i was your age’ thing..”
[Just like I once rolled mine when my mother started to talk about hers ]
And they’d add,
“What do these adults know about our lives?”