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Thought I would share...






Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days." The young clerk 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, 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.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, 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 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 throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 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 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 wadded up old newspapers 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 in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what 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 burger 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?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation
from a smartass 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 smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.
 
This is so true.

I do, however, have a confession to make. I recently started bringing my own grocery bag to the market. Yeah, that's right, rufus does most of the shopping here is rufusville. I cook as a hobby. It relaxes me after a hard day's work. Part of my daily routine involves grabbing the dog and the environmentally friendly grocery bag and going to the market. Doing my own shopping insures I get the right stuff to make the evenings meal, as well as using only fresh goods. I often have no idea what it is I'm about to prepare, I make my mind up while looking at what is available. The best part of this arrangement is that I get to eat whatever I have a hankering for at the moment, and it is always prepared just the way I like it.

Okay, here's a secret. I started using my own grocery bag for two reasons. One, I get five cents off the bill for each bag, and two, cloth bags do not rip when they get wet from the rain, like paper bags do. I was fine with plastic bags until the market stopped supplying them last fall. They went "green" and reverted back to paper bags only. On the first good rain, my bag fell apart in the parking lot. I had to do something. Once I found out they deduct five whole cents from the bill for each bag you bring in, the cheapskate in me had me on-line and buying a $25 reusable bag. Brilliant, eh? lol This is no flowery foo-foo bag either, but a manly man one from <broken link removed> . Mine has a gold Bultaco logo on the side of it. Sweet!

rufus, saving the planet one paper bag at a time. Shave the whales! :s0155:
 
My second job back in the early 70's was in a Winn-Dixie as a bagger/stocker & we didn't have no stinking plastic! !!!
My first job was a bellhop in a Howard Johnson motel in Macon, GA.
which had a service elevator only so I carried all the luggage up stairs....
 
I love the Metro Racing products with the old school logos, but I didn't know they had market bags ( I guess i haven't been to their site in a while). I was goign to order on eup, but couldn't find the Husqvarna model. Oh well, I guess i'll have to go with Bultaco, or maybe Maico.....that CZ logo is pretty sweet too.....
 
But plastic bags make wonderful gifts for toddlers.. think of the children!
And back in the old days, no bags, backpacks etc. were allowed to minimize theft. Now, every swingin dick is encouraged to carry a stealing sack. yay
 
I refuse to play this stupid game the People's Democratic City of Eugene has started with this charging a nickel tax per bag at the store.

I'm really helping with their global warming, climate change, CO2 emissions, and greenhouse gas concerns. Because of my refusal I drive my gas guzzling, CO2 producing Chevy Tahoe OUT of the People's Republic to buy groceries. Junction City and Springfield gets my family's business. I REFUSE to play this stupid game and pay the Kitty Piercy grocery bag tax.

This save the planet, global warming, the sky's falling crap has got to stop. When will the adults be in charge again?
 
The "green" concept as it is pathetic. I am guessing that going to plastic bottles probably saves them the cost of washing/sterilizing the bottles and some government agency probably made it far to difficult to comply with reusing the bottles. Back in the early 90s I would get free bomber bottles from New Belgium brewery that they used for pouring samples. I asked why they were giving them away and they said it was cheaper than complying with the health code requirements for sterilizing the used bottles. Don't get me started on the "clean" hybrid cars and the fact that the damage done to the environment just making and disposing of the battery systems used in them far exceed any pollution from half a dozen old 3/4 ton pickups being run for 20 years.

Bamics - you asked when the adults will be in charge again - my solution to making this happen again is to end all of the required safety labels on things like lawn mowers, etc. If you aren't bright enough to shut the thing off before trying to remove grass from the blade area you probably shouldn't be using it or allowed to sue for hurting yourself. In the old days natural selection taught why it was bad to do things and resulted in a brighter next generation. Now we are going in reverse - "technology" now "saves" people who would not have lived, often keeping them in a vegetative state for years with no hope of recovery. People do stupid things that obviously can harm them and then are allowed to sue the manufacturer of a product because of the stupidity.

Maybe if we (as a society) returned to the idea of personal responsibility we would have adults capable of being in charge and voters who would elect people with those traits instead of idiots who want to change what works and spend more money to keep programs that don't work going.
 
My wife uses the plastic bags from groceries stores for garbage bags. We don't have to buy small garbage bags this way.

This is more or less what I do.

I am single, so I don't have much garbage.

I use the bags for garbage and then take them in about once or twice a week when I go to work and put them in the garbage can in the parking garage.

Yeah, I know, I am using someone else's garbage can by doing that, but then I don't have to pay the garbage man $10 per week to come get one little bag of garbage. When I lived up north they allowed me to do garbage once a month and that was about right, but not here. I figure the garbage man not wasting time and fuel to get my little bag of garbage makes up for it.

I prefer paper bags because they are biodegradable and they come from a renewable source. Also, you can recycle them - either reuse them (one place I shopped recommended this).

The energy cost, carbon footprint of cloth bags is an issue. They harbor bacteria after carrying food (you have to wash them periodically and that increases their environmental impact) and they are not suitable for carrying fruit or meat - just dry goods due to these problems.

Not everything is as "green" as it seems when you look at the details.
 
The big difference between "then" and "now" is the number of people - i.e., the population has grown significantly and this makes a huge impact on the environment.

However, when I was a kid, there was a lot of bad stuff going on - industry and municipalities just dumped their waste into rivers and the ocean (the latter still going on once outside of national waters). The attitude was such that nature was viewed as boundless and able to absorb our dumping of waste - hence there was a lot of pollution that was unnecessary.

As the human population continues to grow, more and more restrictions on pollution and use of natural resources will be necessary. Eventually, we will reach the peak carrying capacity of the environment - if we haven't already. At that point, we will be in a literal "world of hurt".
 
Do you want to drive the libs/greens crazy??
Put an NRA patch on your cloth bag or have a permanent decal from
your local gun club or the patch from IDPA sewn on.

Sheldon
 
writsef.jpg
 

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