New Posts
By:
Filters
  • Hi there guest! Welcome to PoliticalJack.com. Register for free to join our community?

The "green thing"....OMG, so true.....

Barbella

Barbella

Senator
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the 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 f or 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 truely 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. 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?


from an e-mail :)
 
When my dad was out of work due to lay offs and strikes, the returning of soda and beer bottles was the way my brother, cousins and myself was the way we got our money for the Saturdy afternoon movies and treats. When emptying the trash we alway prayed that we could make it to the trash can outside without the paper bag braking. I remember my granddad taking the thick paper bags with the handles to the store for his groceries. We also seperated out tin cans and coal ashes from the regular trash. The cans were melted down and recast and the coal ash was used on the roads in the winter instead of salt. I still buy refills for my pens, I like the Pilot gel pens and they provide refill for their pens. I do use the throw away razors, but if you clean these razors with a nail brush after every shave they will last twice as long as the would normally last. As far as push mowers go, I for one am glad they are gone. However, I remeber the first power mower my dad bought for us to cut the lawn. This thing was a monster, you started it up, released the break and it dragged you behind it up and down the lawn, and than my father in his infinite wisdom came out and told us how much of the lawn we missed and made us go back over those spots. So I went and got all of my friends to help me control the big red monster.

ORR
 
Yes.....this is exactly the problem that is totally lost on anyone less than thrity years old I am afraid. They have grown up in this consumptive culture and cannot envision a time wherein we used so much less electricity and power than we do now. Hell the average passenger car in the 60's was 135 hp ( of course that was the era of the muscle cars too but those were an exception to the rule ) .

Incandescent lights may have been inefficient but when you used only one per room they still used less juice than their modern counterparts which are more efficient but also far more abundant.

What we are now experiencing is the onset of dynamic overload. D.O. is a form of Consumption that is a function of growth and size and this in fact relates strongly to the rules of governing dynamics as first thoroughly explored by the man who inspired the " Beautiful Mind " movie.. John Nash.

To explain more fully let's use the example of an elephant's body type.

If the elephant was twice the weight its legs would need to be four times the size to support the new body weight making for a clumsy and ungainly creature that would never survive on its own in the wild. So the larger body mass serves no real purpose but to increase unit consumption without returning a useful gain to the system. In the biological world we would refer to this as the process of natural selection. In terms of systems we can refer to it as Dynamic Overload.

This is exactly the effect we are seeing now in our urban sprawl....dynamic overload....an exponential increase in consumption that is the toll on the road to growth. Hey...maybe growth isn't always the answer.

So we have more efficient machines now...that's true. But what good does that do when we run so many of them that our total needs have outstripped our total abilities to provide?

JO
 
So we have more efficient machines now...that's true. But what good does that do when we run so many of them that our total needs have outstripped our total abilities to provide?
Click to expand...

Bingo!
 
7 billion and counting on Earth, 150 million , now 315 million in the US, technology is all that keeps that many people fed, otherwise we would be in a Malthusian death spiral.
We need more technology, not less.

61413_527091493968500_872047740_n.jpg
 
Barbella said:
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the 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 f or 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 truely 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. 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?


from an e-mail :)
Click to expand...

Whoever sent it told a great truth. I still get brown bags when I can and use them to recycle my news papers. I hate those crumby,little plastic bags.

Good post,Barb!:eek:)
 
When I was a kid we used to pick up empty bottles and sell them back to the stores for a couple of pennies, I think, maybe a nickle.

Barbella said:
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the 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 f or 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 truely 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. 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?


from an e-mail :)
Click to expand...
 
Old Ridge Runner said:
When my dad was out of work due to lay offs and strikes, the returning of soda and beer bottles was the way my brother, cousins and myself was the way we got our money for the Saturdy afternoon movies and treats. When emptying the trash we alway prayed that we could make it to the trash can outside without the paper bag braking. I remember my granddad taking the thick paper bags with the handles to the store for his groceries. We also seperated out tin cans and coal ashes from the regular trash. The cans were melted down and recast and the coal ash was used on the roads in the winter instead of salt. I still buy refills for my pens, I like the Pilot gel pens and they provide refill for their pens. I do use the throw away razors, but if you clean these razors with a nail brush after every shave they will last twice as long as the would normally last. As far as push mowers go, I for one am glad they are gone. However, I remeber the first power mower my dad bought for us to cut the lawn. This thing was a monster, you started it up, released the break and it dragged you behind it up and down the lawn, and than my father in his infinite wisdom came out and told us how much of the lawn we missed and made us go back over those spots. So I went and got all of my friends to help me control the big red monster.

ORR
Click to expand...

I remember our first power mower,I seldom mowed,but when I tried I almost ran it up a tree!That hing was horrible!:eek:)

That guy on TV that saves you so much money said he could use a Disposible razor for a year by simply wiping it dry!
 
Barbella said:
Yep. Back then we conserved energy because we couldn't AFFORD to waste it.
Click to expand...

TVs were energy PIGS back then. Cars were inefficient.

The ballpoint pen was invented in 1888...and my generation had nothing to do with inventing the TV dinner...

Generations get blended by time. I realize we all have our wistful moments, but the future isn't a static reflection of the past.
 
Well I am 29 and with the exception of the bottles, push mower, and slightly bigger TV sounds like the way I grew up. I remember getting my first pair of brand new jeans at the age of 16, everything I had up to that point was hand me down with the exception of a few shirts from vacations. Walked to school from the age of 12 to 18 two miles one way, when I had finally saved enough money to purchase my own car and was able to afford the insurance. We collected cans from ditches for extra cash as a child, with my 2 dollars a week from allowance.

Paperbags were a way of life around my household growing up, used a ton when butchering season rolled around. Which we still do every year as a family, start to finish slaughter, cleaning, cutting and processing. We use everything from what we kill.


Perhaps it's also a matter of where you grow up. Being in a rural, mid-Minnesota farming community there was very little waste from anyone. It seems like the midwest, or perhaps rural communities in general, are back dated by 40 years or more. Or perhaps it's how a parent raises his/her own children? I'm sure its a conscious choice of how you live, and the fact is that US citizens are the most wasteful people on the planet and it is by choice due to the ease of it.


Being an avid hunter and outdoorsman I am also a strick conservationalist, and unfortunately we tend to destroy the very thing that keeps us alive, I see it all the time. Generally it is from the waste of our society, and other times it is due to "progress" as we destroy more than we need to and put the world around us into an unbalanced state. MN has a great DNR, and great rules that preserve our outdoor world and increase revenue in the state through hunting and tourism.
 
I thought it was ironic that this little sermon started with an admonition against the author doing something wasteful.

In every case in this sermon, the generation that is piously saying "but we didn't have the green thing back then" were the very ones who abandoned the practices they are now being self righteous about.

Yes, and the car you had had no pollution controls on it whatsoever and generated nearly 90 times more pollutants into the air than its modern counterpart does.

Houses were painted with lead paint, and your car's brakes were made of asbestos.

Factories dumped raw waste into rivers and streams, and the power plant that ran your televison blasted coals soot directly into the atmosphere.

BTW, that little telvision used far more power than the modern flat screens do. So did amost every electrical appliance of that era, but the TV was the worst offender.

So did steam locomotives, which consumed coal at high rates and belched 95% of the energy generated into the atmosphere in the form of coal soot, water vapor and heat loss.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. The arguments that conservatives used in the 1960's to complain about things like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act are strikingly similar to the ones uses by global warming deniers today!
 
How about the baby's diapers? It's a proven fact that they add a HUGE amount of waste....

Also, you conveniently ignore the facts that most people had, if that, ONE TV....ONE car.....hung their clothes out to dry, etc.

Why?
 
I grew up in a big city, but back then, energy conservation was simply a way of life dictated by economics. :)

"Waste not, want not" was one of our favorite sayings....LOL
 
All of that does NOT negate the fact that today's generation is much more (willfully and carelessly) wasteful of our resources.
 
I think it is safe to say that we did all those things because we had no alternative. Once we did, we stop doing them. Your post is not about a prior era of environmentally conscious people. Today we are more aware of our impacts to the environment. That is what the "green thing" is about.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top