Graphs That Speak To Real Life Situations

The Green Thing

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 him 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."

He was right -- our generation didn't have the

green thing back in our day...   Did we 'not care enough'...?

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soft drink 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 200-horsepower machine every time we had

to go half a mile.

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

Back then, we washed the baby's nappies 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 cashier 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 Tasmania.

 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 scrunched up old newspaper 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 used a push mower that ran

on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't

need to go to a gym to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But he's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

  We drank from reusable glasses when we were thirsty instead

of using a disposable cup or a plastic bottle every time we had

a drink of water.

 We refilled fountain 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 tram or a bus and kids rode

their bikes to school or walked instead of turning themselves /

their parents into a 24-hour limousine service.

 We had one power socket in a room, not an entire

bank of them 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?

   The Green Thing...