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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Are We Anymore "Green" Now?

There is a blog that I love to read, it is simply called Home.  The lady who writes it, Jackie, takes wonderful trips all over and I love to see her pictures.  She recently wrote this post, which I found very funny, but also very thought provoking.  I hope you will enjoy it, and think it as well. 


In the line at the supermarket, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own carrier bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologised to him and explained that ' We didn't have the green thing back in my day '. The cashier 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 IN OUR DAY.






Back then, we returned milk bottles, soft drinks bottles and beer bottles to the shop or off-licence. They sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized, refilled and re-used so that it could use the same bottles again and again.........so, they really were recycled..........

BUT, WE DIDN'T HAVE THE GREEN THING IN OUR DAY.

We walked to the local shops and didn't climb into a 300 horsepower machine every time we had to go to the supermarket.




We bought fruit and veg loose .......... and washed them at home. We didn't have to throw away bins full of plastic, foam and paper packaging and need huge recycling plants fed by monster lorries all day, everyday..........but, he was  right..........

WE DIDN'T HAVE THE GREEN THING IN OUR DAY.

Back then, we washed our babies nappies because we didn't have disposable ones and we washed up as we didn't have dishwashers.



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.


Children got hand me down ( mostly hand made and hand knitted ) clothes from their brothers and sisters, not always brand new clothing, shipped from the other side of the planet. But, he was right ..........

WE DIDN'T HAVE THE GREEN THING BACK IN OUR DAY.






Back then, shops repaired things with funny things called spare parts .......... we didn't need to throw whole items away because a small part failed. Back then, we had one TV and one radio in the house .......... not a television in every room and, the television had a small screen the size of a handkerchief, not a screen the size of Wales.



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 post, we used lots of newspaper to cushion it, not bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to mow 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 brightly lit, air conditioned gym to run on treadmills that operate on electricity and then drink millions of bottles of that special water from those plastic bottles but, he's right ..........

WE DIDN'T HAVE THE GREEN THING BACK THEN.





We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a plastic cup or a plastic bottle every time we wanted a drink of water.
We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new plastic pen and ..........






.......... we replaced the blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole plastic razor just because the blade became blunt, but..........

WE DIDN'T HAVE THE GREEN THING BACK THEN.







Back then, people took the bus and children rode their bikes to school or walked, instead of turning their parents into a 24 hour taxi service.
We had one electrical socket in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power dozens of appliances..........and, we didn't need a computerised gadget to receive a signal, beamed from satellites 2,000 miles in outer space, to find our way, but then ..........

WHO WOULD WANT TO LIVE IN A TIME WHEN WE DIDN'T HAVE THE GREEN THING ?




DON'T FORGET TO RECYCLE WILL YOU ?


images 1, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14 : via Brown Dress with white spots, image 2, 6 : We Heart It, images 3, 4, 17 :  Crush Cul De Sac, image 15 : Ahhhlala, , image 16 : by Claire, image 7 : Vintage Rose Collection, image 11 : Lucyina Moodie,  image 13 : The Telegraph,



Jackie

Did you find this as interesting as I did?  Reading this made me ashamed of my generation.  It is so sad to me that so many "young" people have so little respect for older people and the things they did.  We are so spoiled today.  We have become a society of people who have to have instant gratification.  We have to have everything yesterday, and it has to be cheap, and high quality, and so on.  There is something to be said for doing things the "old"way.  Don't get me wrong, I love my dishwasher, and my front loading washing machine, but I also love to line dry my cloths.  I think there is a happy medium, and maybe we do need to look at how things were done by our grandparents if we are so concerned with having a "green" life.  What do you think?
Melissa 

5 comments:

  1. I'm the older generation who washed my cloth diapers, hung clothes on the line, made my baby food, etc. We can all learn from each other.

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  2. I am so sick of the entitled mentality that is so pervasive now. I LOVE THIS POST!!!!! :D

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  3. Wow! Well said! I too washed diapers, mended, repaired and made do with what we had. We had fun evenings with board games...we had one car, one phone, one TV..the kids played outside in a sand box that we made, or they rode their 2nd hand bikes..and no one could have been happier! There has to be a happy medium, maybe the next generation will be the one to even things out!

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  4. I have seen this before and it is so true!
    Thank you for reminding us and the photos are just beautiful!

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  5. So true. I am half-in, half-out. I love the convenience of the "new" way, but then we go camping and leave all our conveniences at home and get along just fine. We lose sight of the important things in life when we focus on our own 'wants'. Thanks for the post.

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