In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that 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.”


That’s right, they didn’t have the green thing in her day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, using the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But they didn’t have the green thing back her day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks.

But she’s right. They didn’t have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby’s diapers because they didn’t have the throw-away kind. They 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, they didn’t have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they 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 pizza dish, not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines to do everything for you. When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used wadded up newspaper to cushion it, not styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she’s right, they didn’t have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty, instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled pens with ink, instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But they didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus, instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they 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.

It’s a crying shame that we didn’t have “the green thing” back then!

I can remember how I fought plastic bags at the grocery store, then I finally gave in and now I am horrible if I use them now. I liked it better when everything I bought at the grocery store was in a brown bag.

Yep, some of things mentioned in Jake’s posting I remember.  In fact, when I worked at Brookshire’s, one of my jobs was to work the bottle room … the place where we separated all the cola bottles by which company took which ones.  Some of those bottles were caked with mud … sometimes a nasty job.

And now it seems that I moved to a place that harkens back to those times.  I have to tote my own garbage here.  When I go to the Transfer Station, I make my rounds.  Real trash in this dumpster - $1.50 a bag.  Then I roll over to the recycle bin – zero point recycling.  I don’t have to separate plastic, paper, tin cans and glass. … just dump it in.  And they take 1-7 plastic, too.  Then I go drop by the corrugated cardboard bin … with the move and deliveries, I’ve had a bunch of that stuff.  We have the brush and leaf mountain and there is the graveyard for old porcelain and white goods … stoves refrigerators and stuff.  They are s strip of metal and then go off to be crushed for other uses.

In the groceries, we are a charged a deposit – just like the old days – for glass and plastic.  But we don’t take them back to the store.  There are local Redemption Centers where we take liquor bottles, wine and beer bottles, water jugs and such.  They don’t take up space in a landfill since they are reused. 

I see folks of all socio-economic levels and ages up here taking their cloth bags into the grocery … an old man with a daisy covered tote not caring what anybody thinks, or the Paul Bunyan type with his daughter’s Cinderella tote.  I’m not going to make fun of Paul Bunyan!

We are getting into the mode here with our raised beds for growing food and my composter is on its way.  Some of things we have ordered online, in fact, are wrapped in crushed newspaper!  Some folks think the whole earth movement thing is a crock, but it can’t hurt!  Personally, I’d rather try to do my part.