PROGRESS - We pay for it, isn't it?

I received this in mail from a friend and thought I should share it with all of you. This clearly shows that we are paying for what we call progress we have made from olden times.

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 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 throw away kind. We  dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220volts. 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

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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  m 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?