Thread: Back then....

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that plastic bags
weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized to her and explained,
“We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”

That’s right, they didn’t have the green thing in her day. Back then, they
returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to the store. The
store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled,
using the same bottles over and over. So they really were
recycled.

But they didn’t have the green thing back in her day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn’t have an escalator in
every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn’t
climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks.

But she’s right. They didn’t have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby’s diapers because they didn’t have the
throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling
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.

But that old lady is right, they didn’t have the green thing back in her
day.

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 pizza dish, not a screen the
size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, they
blended 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 wadded up newspaper to cushion it, not
styro foam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline 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.

But she’s right, they didn’t have the green thing back then.

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 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 got dull.

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

Back then, people took the streetcar and kids rode their bikes to school or
rode the school bus, instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi
service. They had one electrical outlet 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 joint.

But isn't it sad that they didn't have the green thing back then?

Way back when Ford and George Washington Carver made a car with a soy plastic body and wanted to use Diesel's original Peanut Oil Diesel Engine (bio-plastics and bio-fuel, plus a car that weighed 30% less than steel versions) because they envisioned us running out of fossil fuels one day, but then more and more oil drills were being tapped one right next to the other....