'Checking out at the store,
the young cashier suggested to the much 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 for 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 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 scribbling. 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 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?
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...especially from a smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.
The end !'
= new reply since forum marked as read
Dump the rest of that lye down the drain in the street honey! 
Of COURSE the point is younger folks can learn a few things. HOPE that will include DUers. Must say I'm not happy with all the negativity in replies here!
the nit-pickers will always make their presence known. 
That DOES help!!!
What are friends for?
I suspect many miss the 
in much of the piece, but I may be mistaken.
but also unfortunately plays the blame game. And yes, older folk have done all those things... but did they have any options? As soon as plastic bottles came around, they adopted them. Same with clothes-dryers and dishwashers. The "I walked 5 miles to school every morning" line my grandpa used to give me always ended with me saying, "Yeah but would you have used the car if you had one?"
I think it all comes down to some of us make conscious choices in our lives to do what we think is best for the environment. Some of us don't think about it. And some of us don't have the luxury of thinking about it. There are of course the people who have thought about it and just don't care... i have contempt for people like that.
How many times do we have to read "Get off my lawn" which we all know is code for old people who are cranky.
I think the older people on DU are much more tolerant of the younger ones than vice versa.
Besides, you never hear philosophers talking about the wisdom of youth
I thought this was just a fun thing for elleng to post in General Discussion, but once again, some DU'ers have to turn everything into a controversy. No wonder the conservatives talk about the left and their political correctness with disdain. Some people on here want to turn everything into a serious issue.
The wisdom of age gives some of us the ability to see what are really important issues to concern ourselves with and what we can have a bit of fun with.
An example: my great aunt had 5 children, all born in the 1960s. With the first three, she used cloth diapers and breastfed. That's what everyone did. But there was a real change in the late 60s, and when the last two were born, she used Pampers (which was all there was back then in disposables) and fed the babies Similac. This was on the advice of her doctor who told her that disposable diapers produced less diaper rash and discomfort for the baby and that Similac ("formula"
was somehow much better for the baby than breast milk. Male doctor, go figure.
At any rate, that generation of young adults in the 1960s/70s was fed a lot of garbage, most of it corporate-backed, that encouraged them to waste and use disposable stuff. They didn't start out that way.
and what some of the younger folks may not realize was that we had very little choice about switching to the new disposable stuff. Stores quit carrying the old reusable things. For a while, recyclable bottles went away, and milk delivery ceased.
I can remember quite a bit of kvetching and complaining about plastic 'everything' and the crummy quality of throw-away products. No one asked us what our preferred choice would be on these things.
With that said, I also don't like the 'tone' of these kinds of postings/email forwards, etc. They do seem to have a whiff of generational war, whether intended or not.
I also object VERY strongly to all boomers being to blame for Ronnie Raygun/ Both Bushes/Republican hegemony in general!!!!!!!!! 
I voted AGAINST all of them, and quit watching t.v. after Ronnie Raygun 'won' his re-election. 
To this day, the only t.v. in my house is an old small portable, which I use only for watching video tapes. I highly recommend to all reading Jerry Mander's book, " Four Arguments For the Elimination of Television." It was relevant back when he wrote it (1977), and is even more relevant now.
Count me as another unrepentant hippie, Earth loving, green warrior.
We return bottles and cans where I live, and I'm pretty sure that other states do too. Just not sure how many, and I'm too busy to google, other than to provide this link. http://www.bottlebill.org/legislation/usa/maine.htm
If your state doesn't do this, and you* are concerned about the environment, this would be a good starting point. Call your state legislator and ask if he/she would be willing to sponsor a bill using this, or other state 'bottle bill' laws as the model. It is certainly not the only solution, but every little thing can help.
*I meant you as in anyone, not necessarily you-you.
Edit: Here is a map of states w/bottle bill laws (although the legislation may be of a different name). Found it at my own link. 
When did this happen?
Good memories of that.
From what I've read, these flights might be doing more to cool the earth than to warm it.
Have you seen the PBS NOVA show "Dimming the Sun"?
It suggests that particulates in the atmosphere actually lessen the impact of GHGs.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun/dimm-nf.html
Used to be sold at Long's and, really, any drug store or men's store.
I finally found some at Penney's.
K/R for a real good read, one for multiple generations.
YOU understand!
Dad used handkerchiefs.
Called every drug store and many department stores before finding them.
Might be easier for me to send them to you - ha!
PS. It's one of the things I HATE folding! I don't know why. I just like to throw them back in the laundry basket and get them to fold them if I can help it.
But he has not found any to buy in a long time, just washes the ones he has. I don't think he has gotten any news ones since mom died (2004) as she was always the one that bought them for him (for christmas usually).
I know he looked a few years back because he complained that no one had them (and by no one he means the 3 places he usually shops that mom used to shop at for such things, but he did find a ton of socks he liked).
Side story about JC Penney's: Dad went there when I was a kid to buy a belt (at the outlet/catalog store here). I had wanted a chess playing game, the electronic kind, and we looked at one at sears but was too expensive (130 I think back in like 1982 give or take). He found one at penney's while looking around, in a damaged box half off - better than the one I wanted. He bought that, some other stuff on sale, got home all excited and then realized...he forgot to buy a belt
Same with dishwashers, microwaves, flatscreen tv, etc.
People have survived this long (probably not much longer though the way we are now [and have been] destroying the planet) without modern technologies and practices that are harmful to the environment.
Unfortunately, I really don't see a solution to the problem. Aside from my cynicism, putting our collective brains together and learning from each other isn't such a bad idea. We all have our differences, many more severe than age, but we could change in theory.
(I know, I know....I'm a dreamer .... )
I stand corrected.
Or maybe you feel very young.
A high-school classmate sent this to me, so its not MY story. And, fwiw, we're older than you!
We too only had one car, 4 of us. FUNNY when our folks retired to Florida Dad, decided he and Mom needed 2 cars! He gave me his 3? years ago, and I'm still driving it.
Driving to Florida shortly for a mini-high school reunion, and to visit cemetery where folks were interred. Using friend's much newer car, to save my car's useable life and gas money.
and somehow we were able to get along with only one car. One time my father bought a used hearse and as kids we used to fight over who got to sit where the cool kneelers were
We also had only one bathroom.
Two cars, Non (grandmother) had a 61 Olds '98, mom had a late 50's Fairlane that she used to go into town for her job as a social worker.
Dirt poor, we lived in my grandparents' house that was the center of the asparagus ranching operation, for free, thanks to the kindness of the landowner who leased ranch land to the farmers.
We had running water, but it wasn't potable. We had one faucet in the kitchen for cooking and drinking, fed by a repurposed aircraft fuel tank up in a tower for gravity pressure. River water was run through a sand filter system for all other purposes. The drinking water was trucked in on a trailer we had made of a redwood barrel with wooden spoked wheels.
And a party line!
Good times!
Fan-cee! We drank from a glass when we wanted some water. We didn't have a drinking fountain at our house 
The only non-returnables are dairy (such as the one gallon milk jugs) and unprocessed cider bottles.
but that's neither here nor there, right?
"You should this or that". People who critique people are my pet peeve. Guaranteed, anyone who wanted to could think up a list on the spot, of things the "should-ers" should be doing themselves, without even trying.
But still, the critiquers think their critiquing is the equivalent of actually doing something meaningful. It just isn't though.
I'm not even sure where I can buy razors with replaceable blades anymore. I think they are intentionally designed to get dull fast. But I'll see if I can find some.
'Planned obsolescence.' I've thought U.S. cars were made like that. STILL driving Dad's '93 Toyo wagon.
I see a lot of "reaction" to this OP and I think it's unfair.
For one thing, we know a lot more now than we did "back then" about the environment and the error of our ways.
Still, we use more energy per capita than ever before, we live in bigger houses than ever before*, and spend less time outdoors.
Oh, and our diet has never been worse, with high quality fresh food harder to find than in days past.
Our carbon footprint, just per capita, is vastly larger than it used to be.
*Home size has begun to drop ever so slightly, and car MPG is improving.
In the end, there's a lot of good in this post, as there were a lot of things done far more efficiently and sustainably back then.
To our health: 
Per Capita figures based only on burning of fossil fuels and cement production are only part of the picture.
Cement, transportation, in-country manufacturing, heating, and electrical power generation are the primary fossil fuel burners and consequent carbon emissions culprits.
But, we buy so much from other countries that unless THAT carbon component, the manufacturing and transportation of goods, etc., is considered, then the data set is very misleading.
environmental degradation?!? Are you suggesting we should all get out of the workforce and go back home? 
Perhaps you are unaware of something: world-wide, women do 99% of the world's work, and we own only 1% of the wealth.
That does not add up to the kind of control over the state of the world to end up pointing fingers at the women's Rights movement (as in Civil Rights), to make us to blame for the current sorry state of the ecological damage to our home planet. 
I think we can look steadily at the 1% of wealth-owners, follow the money, and see who REALLY has benefited from most of the economic and social changes since the 1970's.
We scared the pants off the greed-heads and social conservatives! They have been trying to push us all back to Dark Ages feudalism, ever since. They did not like our threats to their all-mighty profits, and their desire to control women is NOT because they are nice fuzzie wuzzies who have the best interests of the rest of us at heart.
who want us to tear at each other, and blame other powerless groups for the problems our society is having.
It also plays into the hands of the American Taliban (read- fundy conservative religious types of all religions), who would love nothing better than to force women back into the home, with no alternative but to endure abusive marriages!
If I wanted to get divisive, I could certainly point out the mess that Men have made of this world (come on, the statistics on who has the power, money, and influence...hint: it is NOT women)...but my awareness of class warfare and its devastating effects on us all holds me back.
In spite of that, the answer is absolutely NOT for women to just bow our little heads and toddle back home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't you get it: the 1% thrives on the idea of scarcity and the fear it creates. There would be enough work for everyone, and decent paying jobs as well as compared to the sorry excuses for wages too many of us get, if it were not for the greed of the 1%. We need to stop them from off-shoring our jobs, AND more jobs need to be created to solve the humongous pile of unsolved economic, social, and ecological issues that need to be addressed, let along fixed.
Good grief!
What I find objectionable is the whiff of blaming, which bugs me HUGELY!
Women don't own the wealth of the world, nor do we wield our fair share of clout in terms of political power.
The depression of wages is not the fault of women.
The depression of wages is a ploy by the wealthy owners of our society to keep wealth and power in their hands.
It is NOT a 'narrative' that I have personally constructed. 
I SHOULD be so very lucky, as to have that much power over the way our society works...except I understand that the whole concept of power-over is what is flawed!
Been WAITING for this!
Response to Texasgal (Reply #157)
there is "no 'away' to throw things too". (Thank you to Anne Cameron, for the quote).
Everything that is thrown 'away' winds up on someone's yard, beach, river, etc.
The whole idea was rotten from the beginning.
And, yes, it IS planned obsolescence because that creates more profits for the 1%.
some younger generation folks try to blame all the greed or our current society, and all of the environmental degradation on those of us who were movers and shakers back in the 1960's.
They seem unaware that the "Green" movement began as a movement during the Sixties. I was in high school when the first Earth Day happened. A lot of what the Sixties was about was to stop mindlessly being part of the consumerist, war-mongering, Earth polluting and destroying, sexist, racist, classist society. That's why we referred to it as "dropping out"!
And, yes, many people had an awareness of needing to live what would now be termed a 'green' lifestyle. J.I. Rodale, the founder of Organic Gardening Magazine was promoting organic gardening and the avoidance of chemicals as long ago as 1949. Aldo Leopold, who died in 1948, wrote the quintessential manifesto for an environmentally conscientious land ethic, "A Sand County Almanac". I could go on, and on.
None of this was widely known until the environmental movement took off in the 1960's.
I would apologize for not single-handedly saving the Earth for future generations, while earning my living from low-wage, working class jobs...but, that would be absurd.
Believe me, if I HAD been in charge of the world, and had that kind of power given to me, things would be VERY much different!
And, yes, I DO live in a very old home (1920's vintage - I do NOT own it - don't earn enough to buy any home)...it has far fewer electrical outlets than newer homes. I haven't had a dryer for @ 7 years. Not out of some 'moral' superiority...it is due to lack of income! I hang my clothes on an old clothesline in the basement or on a couple of drying racks, or put the drying racks outside when the sun shines and its warm enough to dry them. I work outside the home (split shifts)...it is a hardship...towels come out like cardboard when dried this way. This practice, along with many other similar things I do, helps me save $ and precious natural resources, but it is very time consuming. I don't think I could manage this stuff if I had a family.
Making real change can be both difficult and expensive. We ALL need each other to make it through...and the Earth and the children of the future need us to work together on this stuff, as well.
I wish people would stop the snark towards each other, because I think the 1% laughs all the way to the bank when we tear at each other.
to you.
sorry if I've ranted so much on your post.
It has provoked some interesting discussion.
I had better scoot...my alarm goes off @ 3:30 am.
G'nite.
just about the best.
Sweet dreams!
How the hell else do you put out a wildfire? Can't waste water during a drought.
