I guess we were ahead of our time but just did not know it

I guess we were ahead of our time but just did not know it..........mmmm.

In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because 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."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."

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.

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 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 the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their
brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.



But that old 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 a wadded up old newspaper 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 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?

Love it. :2tsup:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind.

---

There is an argument that throw away nappies are actually no worse enviromentally than cloth, but your list misses the most obvious error.

In the "old days" we either got a second hand carboard box or a PAPER bag to carry our groceries home in. Quite often the box got used a third time for whatever miscelaneous purpose (storing half full lead paint cans, DDT and copper arsenate) and the bags broke down quick smart into either ash in the fire or compost.

I think it's part of the job description that every generation of kids has to horrify the generation that went before, often by risky behaviour but sometimes also by blinding ignorance and arrogance. As they say the older you get the less you know...

Very amusing...

Isn't that the truth, although in truth much of it applied to the generation or two before mine.

I have two good things to say about Bunnings. One is they give you recycled cardboard boxes for your purchases.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by damian

...
I think it's part of the job description that every generation of kids has to horrify the generation that went before, often by risky behaviour ...

---

You mean something like pressing the send button before pressing the spell-check button? The riskiest things kids do these days is leave the house without updating their facebook status. More than 80% of kids have never climbed a tree. It's not amusing, it is very sad.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by damian

In the "old days" we either got a second hand carboard box or a PAPER bag to carry our groceries home in. Quite often the box got used a third time for whatever miscelaneous purpose (storing half full lead paint cans, DDT and copper arsenate) and the bags broke down quick smart into either ash in the fire or compost.



Very amusing...

---

and string bags ... didn't anyone else use those?

regards david

In the old days, the kid would have got a smack in the chops for being disrespectful too :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by damian

In the "old days" we either got a second hand carboard box or a PAPER bag to carry our groceries home in. Quite often the box got used a third time for whatever miscelaneous purpose (storing half full lead paint cans, DDT and copper arsenate) and the bags broke down quick smart into either ash in the fire or compost.

---

Hope you took the copper arsenate out first:o

All jokes aside, that was sent to me by my son (40) and he could see that "my" generation wasn't all bad, although we were pretty ignorant on some things.

That reminds me, was surprised that Green wasn't listed under the official religions on the last census.:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Big Shed

....That reminds me, was surprised that Green wasn't listed under the official religions on the last census.:)

---

Oh Fred!! Try question 19. "Other-Please specify":roll::;

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mulgabill

Oh Fred!! Try question 19. "Other-Please specify":roll::;

---

Nah, not the same, you could put anything yhere, even Jedi Knight:rolleyes:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Nah, not the same, you could put anything yhere, even Jedi Knight:rolleyes:

---

Or the "Anti Carbon Tax Church" like I did. :U:U


Peter.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sturdee

Or the "Anti Carbon Tax Church" like I did. :U:U


Peter.

---

That has a nice ring to it Peter, ACT Church:2tsup:, love it:D

What the go with no envelope to put the censis form in ,do they supply one when they pick it up ,cause there is stuff in there that is private.???

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bluegum30

What the go with no envelope to put the censis form in ,do they supply one when they pick it up ,cause there is stuff in there that is private.???

---

You can request one when they pick it up.

Even more private to do it on-line, it was a breeze.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Big Shed

You can request one when they pick it up.

Even more private to do it on-line, it was a breeze.

---

Online! easy peasy :2tsup:

sjm:

You mean something like pressing the send button before pressing the spell-check button? The riskiest things kids do these days is leave the house without updating their facebook status. More than 80% of kids have never climbed a tree. It's not amusing, it is very sad.<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

You should pay closer attention to what teenagers get up to these days. Or maybe you shouldn't....

Mind for all the sensationalist media about drag races, sex and drugs I still reckon they are pretty soft core compared to what we used to do. Mind we didn't publish intimate details of our sex lives for all to see.

robbygard:

and string bags ... didn't anyone else use those?

I used to have a granny trolley. I've been looking for a good quality one these last few years. Very handy...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bluegum30

What the go with no envelope to put the censis form in ,do they supply one when they pick it up ,cause there is stuff in there that is private.???

---

They never handed them out, you always had to ask.

Ah, golly, kids these day... why back in my day when we stayed off everyone's lawn...

What a silly list, Great-Grandma didn't use cloth nappies over disposable because she was being 'environmentally friendly', it was because they didn't exist back then.

Same for the rest of it.

I suppose they preferred to read the paper instead of watching the news on their 55" plasma telly as well.

Sheesh.

I hate these fake, feel-good threads that go the rounds and usually come from the US.
As Dropcat implied, poverty is the great recycler.
Cheers,
Jim

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jimbur

I hate these fake, feel-good threads that go the rounds and usually come from the US.
As Dropcat implied, poverty is the great recycler.

---

Give it a couple of months and it'll be back.

I'm pretty 'green', but that's more to do with being broke and/or a tightwad than anything else.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jimbur

I hate these fake, feel-good threads that go the rounds and usually come from the US.
As Dropcat implied, poverty is the great recycler.
Cheers,
Jim

---

Many years ago I worked with a bloke, who was nice enough, but he was your typical inner city "greenie". One day he came in all bubbly with a brochure from a talk he'd been to on a "green" house. It listed all the "green" things they did. He was quite taken aback when I pointed out I did about 80% of those things and my neighbours would cover the ones I missed, that we did it because it was cheap not because it was "green", and that furthermore we didn't feel the need to give seminars.....

As I say over and over, it is the great logical fail of the greenies that they assume people who for the most part live as far away from the nature they profess to love should dictate to the people who have gone out of their way to live in the bush how they should deal with the enviroment.

[QUOTE=damian;1362435]and that furthermore we didn't feel the need to give seminars...../QUOTE]
You're missing out on a great source of income Damian. Big growth industry in seminars these days, whether telling you how to be green or how to make money on the stock exchange.
Cheers,
Jim

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by damian

One day he came in all bubbly with a brochure from a talk he'd been to on a "green" house. It listed all the "green" things they did. He was quite taken aback when I pointed out I did about 80% of those things

---

My Great-Great-Granny saved electricity by using not a computer! Awesome! How green was that!

A friend's grandfather once said the best thing about the 'good old days' was the that the 'good old days 'were gone. He'd been there, and they were crap. He liked his big colour TV, mobile phone, fuel-injected car etc.

You'd think people would actually read those emails before sending them on, but anyway. Or at least take a little bit of effort to change the names of foreign places to somewhere local.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dropcat

You'd think people would actually read those emails before sending them on, but anyway. Or at least take a little bit of effort to change the names of foreign places to somewhere local.

---

They forward them to everyone in their address book and usually don't bother to use blind carbon copy. You only need to be in the address book of one idiot and your address becomes known worldwide. No wonder viruses and junk mail spreads.
Cheers,
JIm

[quote=jimbur;1362447]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by damian

and that furthermore we didn't feel the need to give seminars...../QUOTE]
You're missing out on a great source of income Damian. Big growth industry in seminars these days, whether telling you how to be green or how to make money on the stock exchange.
Cheers,
Jim

---

Shudder.

Good point about the "good old days". There were many things I liked about Australia 40 years ago but some of it definitely sucked.

If you lose a finger now there is a chance they can sew it back on. Not so 40 years ago. No doubt lots of other examples...

[quote=damian;1362986]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jimbur

There were many things I liked about Australia 40 years ago but some of it definitely sucked.

---

Besides the possibility of retaining digital integrity these days, who wants to go back to the era of boiled cabbage?
cheers,
Jim

Clearly I missed something. I don't recall anyone in my family making boiled cabbage. I do have terribly fond memories of my grandmother shelling great bowls of peas and letting the young damian take handfuls to eat.

And fairyfloss bigger than my head :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by damian

Clearly I missed something. I don't recall anyone in my family making boiled cabbage. I do have terribly fond memories of my grandmother shelling great bowls of peas and letting the young damian take handfuls to eat.

And fairyfloss bigger than my head :D

---

If you missed boiled cabbage you didn't miss a thing:D

''If you missed boiled cabbage you didn't miss a thing''

And what is wrong with boiled cabbage ? ,i eat it and hasn't harmed me .:D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bluegum30

''If you missed boiled cabbage you didn't miss a thing''

And what is wrong with boiled cabbage ? ,i eat it and hasn't harmed me .:D

---

Well, it doesn't lower your carbon footprint for a start:no:

In the old days the saying was "a photo never lies" as they were rarely altered.
Today the image has been digitally manipulated. Negatives can last over one hundred years, how long can digital memory last? I bet many people have recorded hundreds of images that have never been printed off and are now long forgotten and lost.

The paper bags, were they really so good. Sure they were more environmentally friendly but how many could you carry at once? If liquid or condensation got to the bag it could let go, allowing your recyclable bottles to crash out. The store could still plaster their brand on the sides and any other message they like. But I still miss them.

Now where is that green thing, even though mine is blue or red.