Back when.

Shared from another site.

A MUST READ!! I could even go on!! Lengthy but so true:

Checking out at the supermarket recently, the young cashier suggested I
should bring my own bags because plastic bags weren't good for the
environment. I apologised and explained, "We didn't have this green
thing back in my earlier days".

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

She was right about one thing--our generation didn't have the green
thing in “Our” day. So what did we have back then?

After some reflection and soul-searching on "Our" day here's what I
remembered we did have..............

Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop 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 repeatedly.
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 nappies because we didn't have the
throw-away kind.

We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning
up 240 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in
our early days.

Kids got 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 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 Wales.

In the kitchen, we blended & 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 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 bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or
walked instead of turning their mums 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 older
folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

So many good points. Thanks Sportsman!

So true... You know a baby boomer probably wrote it.
If someone in their 80's or 90's wrote it, they would have added that there was no need to buy plastic bags or tupperware when you have a plastic bread bag from every loaf of bread and a plastic bowl with a lid from every margarine purchase.