Friday, December 20, 2013

We Greybeards Have Destroyed The Planet


Checking out at the supermarket, the young cashier suggested to the
much older man, that he should bring his own grocery bags because
Plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
 
Woodsterman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this 'green
thing' back in my earlier days."

The young 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, lemonade bottles and beer
bottles to the shop. The shop 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 shops bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we re-
used for numerous things, most memorable besides household bags for
rubbish, 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 a lift in every
supermarket, shop and office building. We walked to the local shop and
didn't climb into a 300 horsepower machine every time we had to go half
a mile.

But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's Terry Towel nappies because we didn't
have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-
gobbling machine burning up 3 kilowatts wind and solar power really did
dry our clothes back in our early days.. Kids had 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 radio or TV in the house - not a TV in every
room and the TV had a small screen the size of a big handkerchief
(remember them?), not a screen the size of Scotland 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
petrol just to cut the lawn. We pushed the 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 tap or 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 bus and kids rode their bikes to school or
walked instead of turning their Mums into a 24-hour taxi service in the
family's 50,000 People Carrier which cost the same as 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 Pub!

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 smart ass 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 tattooed, multiple pierced smart ass
who can't work out the change without the cash register telling them how much it is!




Here endeth the bloody lesson!

26 comments:

  1. One of the best lessons ever Odie, unfortunately today's youth have no sense of history and the tattoo ink has seeped into their skulls I fear.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Randy, I'm afraid it's message is lost on the yutes of America.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It should be required of all Americans that they work on a farm for a three year stretch! Conservation...Conservatism...and just plain common sense would become a natural thing again.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Scotty, They walk among us ... take another look.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yep, they think they have a handle on everything and where are they learning this? School and the government. The two places that should not be messing in a families life.

    Have a fabulous day. ☺

    ReplyDelete
  6. Odie, I'm sure it is only because you make the cashier nervous because of your attractive qualities.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Opie, You show uncommonly good taste as usual. Do you think anyone knows what inspired your comment?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great post, sounds just like my childhood!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Cube, We grey beards aren't as dumb as we look.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I can recall the first time I saw a plastic bag in a grocery store. Strangely, it was not in this country, but in a large super market in Mexico in 1966. I remember thinking---the Mexicans make everything cheap. By that time there was a move in this country to do away with paper bags in order to save the forest. I suppose the long and short of the story is that the left will never really decide what they want. One day it plastic the next day its paper.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great one Odie!

    F* the "green" thing. These young whipper snappers who think they know everything to learn about history and shut their yaps.

    ReplyDelete
  12. They also think they invented sex.

    ReplyDelete
  13. And we used the entire brontosaurus until it was all gone! Nothing went to waste!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anybody remember how great line-dried bed linens smelled?

    Well, like a lot of things, they're gone forever. If you don't remember, you're not an old goat like me.

    You kids get the hell off my lawn.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Rick, and we don't even need spot remover.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ron, Mrs. Woodsterman reuses the paper bags doubled with a plastic bag on the outside. I prefer paper because my groceries end up everywhere when plastic is used. Would someone please tell these young morons that trees are renewable.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Proof, Damn straight, and there's nothing better than a brontosaurus steak on the barbie.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Unknown, thanks for calling me young, but many would argue that point with you. My ball went over the fence. can I get it Mister Unknown?

    ReplyDelete

Put it here ... I can't wait to read it. I have the Captcha turned OFF but blogger insists it be there. You should be able to bypass it.

*** Moderation has been added due to Spam and a Commenter a little too caustic. I welcome comments, but talk of killing and racist (or even close to racist) are not welcome.