Generational differences ... Thx Linda O and Roy!

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested     to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags,because plastic bags are not good for the environment.      The    woman apologized to   the    young girl    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."    The     older lady said that she was right -- our generation didn't have the"green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain:   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 school books. This was to     ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was     not defaced by our scribbling. 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 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 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 smart ass 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 smart ass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.