I'm old so I'm not "GREEN"

[Beltman60]

sent to me from an old friend

Checking out at Kroger's today, a young female cashier suggested that I should bring my own grocery bags in the future because plastic bags "ARE BAD" for the environment.

I apologized and explained, "You know Miss, we didn't have this environmental 'green thing' back in my earlier days like you have now days."

Then she responded, "That's the problem today. Your old generation did not care enough to save the environment for our generation and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves."

She was right -- our generation didn't have this environmental 'green thing' back in the day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles and soda bottles back 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.

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 scribbling our name on the front.

But, I guess it really is 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 Ohio.

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 man power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club in designer clothes 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 $75,000 SUV or van, which cost the price of five nice bungalows 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 beer 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 登ld person like me who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart *** kid wearin' a designer cashier's outfit who can't count without using their hand held computer..

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to pi$$ us off...especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smart ***** b-witch who can't make change without the cash register telling her how much. Next time I stop in there I'm gonna' tell her to shove the "green thing" right up there where the sun don't shine."

 

[farmgirl19]

That's all too true!

 

[Loadstar]

Yea back in the day when every home burned coal, everything was so efficient, and if you didn't know what it was or what to do with it you dumped it in the river because it would magically disappear.

 

[jinman]

Yea back in the day when every home burned coal, everything was so efficient, and if you didn't know what it was or what to do with it you dumped it in the river because it would magically disappear.

Hmm. . . have you checked the rivers today? They are full of tires and people's trash. In some places, the rivers are flooding out of their banks because of all the trash. Which is worse, burning tires or dumping them in rivers or ditches so they collect water and breed West Nile Virus? Just recently a local pig slaughter house was dumping raw blood into a creek. We have no shortage of people today who will pollute anytime they can get away with it. Some people would even tell you that our waste water injection wells pollute water tables and cause earthquakes while we burn the clean gas produced by fracking and pat ourselves on the back for being so environmentally friendly. Disposing of waste by putting it way out of sight has changed from the rivers to our water tables, some would say.

BTW, I'm in favor of "drill baby, drill." I'm just not so sure we are taking care of our waste byproducts as responsibly as we should. However, my sensitivity to this is surely because I have 10 wastewater injection wells within 5 miles of my house. I see tank truck after tank truck hauling waste into those sites, but never see any inspection reports for the well casings. All we ever see is denial of any danger by the people who are supposed to check these wells while complaining that they don't have the funds or people to do inspections. Hmm. . . INDEED! (Rant out.)

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Yea back in the day when every home burned coal, everything was so efficient, and if you didn't know what it was or what to do with it you dumped it in the river because it would magically disappear.

A valid comment even though it is not entirely accurate. Some folks did burn a lot of coal, and cities like London could be pretty miserable with the air pollution. Most of the folks burned either natural gas, kerosene (they called it coal oil ) or wood when I was a kid, and in my Father's day they burned wood on the farm both for heating and cooking. Even so, in this country, at the time of the first Clean Air Act, the three primary air polluters were industry, motor vehicles and open burning.

Our methods of waste treatment and disposal were pathetic. You are correct; one way was to dump it into the water or just dump it in a swamp or arroyo somewhere out of the way. I got into environmental enforcement back in the early 80's; things had a long way to go then, particularly industrial air and water emissions and waste disposal; and to some extent sewage treatment. Things have come a long way in 30 years, thanks to the environmental movement.

 

[Loadstar]

Hmm. . . have you checked the rivers today? They are full of tires and people's trash. In some places, the rivers are flooding out of their banks because of all the trash. Which is worse, burning tires or dumping them in rivers or ditches so they collect water and breed West Nile Virus? Just recently a local pig slaughter house was dumping raw blood into a creek. We have no shortage of people today who will pollute anytime they can get away with it. Some people would even tell you that our waste water injection wells pollute water tables and cause earthquakes while we burn the clean gas produced by fracking and pat ourselves on the back for being so environmentally friendly. Disposing of waste by putting it way out of sight has changed from the rivers to our water tables, some would say.

BTW, I'm in favor of "drill baby, drill." I'm just not so sure we are taking care of our waste byproducts as responsibly as we should. However, my sensitivity to this is surely because I have 10 wastewater injection wells within 5 miles of my house. I see tank truck after tank truck hauling waste into those sites, but never see any inspection reports for the well casings. All we ever see is denial of any danger by the people who are supposed to check these wells while complaining that they don't have the funds or people to do inspections. Hmm. . . INDEED! (Rant out.)

Never said things were perfect today. I burn tires.

 

[farmgirl19]

I reuse tires! They hold ground level rubber pans, made from recyled rubber, for livestock to eat from. Yes, if one gets a rain, they need to be dumped sometimes. My pans fit so tightly, many times they do not. And, given our current rain status for 2013, I don't think I've needed to dump water from them at all, this year.

Tires are also good to pull behind a horse, to leg them up, and get them used to pulling.

 

[Loadstar]

A valid comment even though it is not entirely accurate. Some folks did burn a lot of coal, and cities like London could be pretty miserable with the air pollution. Most of the folks burned either natural gas, kerosene (they called it coal oil ) or wood when I was a kid, and in my Father's day they burned wood on the farm both for heating and cooking. Even so, in this country, at the time of the first Clean Air Act, the three primary air polluters were industry, motor vehicles and open burning.

Our methods of waste treatment and disposal were pathetic. You are correct; one way was to dump it into the water or just dump it in a swamp or arroyo somewhere out of the way. I got into environmental enforcement back in the early 80's; things had a long way to go then, particularly industrial air and water emissions and waste disposal; and to some extent sewage treatment. Things have come a long way in 30 years, thanks to the environmental movement.

"Not entirely accurate" splitting hairs here aren't we. I will replace "every" with "a lot to most depending on location" then add in the good old downtown power plants, coal burning factorys, and hey here comes a steam locomotive get the laundry off the clothes line so the whites aren't speckled.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I can relate to everything Beltman60 has described while I was growing up. Sadly now I am almost like the Yuppies in some things. I have 4 TV sets with only me and the wife to watch, 3 automobiles presently. We just bought a new one basically because it will get double the gas mileage of any of the other 2 we have.
I still prescribe to the "old style" cell phone that you just talk on and don't text or internet search on them. It is getting hard to find a phone that is not a SMART phone when all you want to do is talk on it occasionally. We don't run up and down the roads burning gas just to be "out for a drive" like some folks do and only average about 7000 miles per year on the road. I am too old to even attempt to mow with a push mower like we used as a kid and it would take a small army of kids to mow the acreage that I keep as a lawn now which is really a waste of gasoline, but I don't want to fool with a bunch of animals grazing on it and don't like the idea of it just growing up as wilderness. It was that way when we bought it and it was really bad.
I don't think you can even find a paper bag at a grocery store anymore if you wanted to use them rather than plastic. I suppose one could buy a bunch of the cloth bags to reuse IF you could remember to bring them with you to the store. We don't go grocery shopping everyday like the Europeans do so it would take a bunch of reusable bags to haul all of our stuff home. The closest we got to being environmentalist was when we lived in London and either walked everywhere or used the mass transit system, hauled our groceries home by hand and could only buy what we could carry 12 blocks back home. Couldn't stock up too much because the fridge was too small (and ours was larger than most) to hold very much so it was shop about every two days.

I suppose if I were to be accosted by a "young'un" about us oldsters wasting THEIR resources, I would have had to verbally abuse them a bit, make that a lot as a minimum.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

"Not entirely accurate" splitting hairs here aren't we. I will replace "every" with "a lot to most depending on location" then add in the good old downtown power plants, coal burning factorys, and hey here comes a steam locomotive get the laundry off the clothes line so the whites aren't speckled.

It was not my intent to insult you, but to point out burning coal was perhaps a local phenomenon, especially as far as home heating was concerned... and that your point that a lot of today's environmental concerns are the product of yesterday's practices was right on. As for coal burning power plants, they are a good example. They are a left-over from an era when combustion products were emitted directly into the ambient air without any treatment...they are left over because they were (and are) tremendously expensive to build, maintain and modify and retrofitting them with pollution controls is also very expensive. Politics being what they are, such older plants were "grandfathered" to some extent and never completely retrofitted.

I hope you were being facetious when you said you burned old tires; open burning of tires is illegal in most or all jurisdictions.

 

[Loadstar]

It was not my intent to insult you, but to point out burning coal was perhaps a local phenomenon, especially as far as home heating was concerned... and that your point that a lot of today's environmental concerns are the product of yesterday's practices was right on. As for coal burning power plants, they are a good example. They are a left-over from an era when combustion products were emitted directly into the ambient air without any treatment...they are left over because they were (and are) tremendously expensive to build, maintain and modify and retrofitting them with pollution controls is also very expensive. Politics being what they are, such older plants were "grandfathered" to some extent and never completely retrofitted.

I hope you were being facetious when you said you burned old tires; open burning of tires is illegal in most or all jurisdictions.

No, no, no, I did not take it as an insult at all! Just tossing out talking points and debating a little. Yes I will burn an occasional tire to start a wet fire lol. Im not necessarily a environmental poster child.

 

[jinman]

I think Beltman60's story has a good (and funny) premise, but I suspect a checker would never give somebody a hard time about not bringing their own bags even at a store where there were no bags like Sam's Club or a Bag-N-Save grocery. If I were the store manager, I would not want a checker lecturing the customers about the environment. That would just be bad business. Even ALDI charges for bags, but the bags they sell are not a profit center. They just pass along the price to the customer. Their quarter rental charge for a basket is also a savings thing and has nothing to do with the environment unless you mean having people return their baskets to the store instead of them becoming hazards in the parking lot. Like bottle deposits of old, ALDI has found a way to save by having people be responsible for returning their own baskets. Even so, some people get very upset at being charged a basket deposit and some even leave the baskets in the parking lot rather than get their quarter back. That seems like a great business opportunity for a kid to collect baskets in the parking lot and come away with a pocket full of quarters.

 

[deezler]

Sorry beltman, your post makes no sense. You were less wasteful with *some* things only because you had to be, as innovation had yet to make things as cheap and disposable as they are today. As engineering and marketing modernized, your generation (yes, YOUR) created the era of mass consumption with zero consequences ideology that we still live under today.

If you truly did those things in the past out of concern for the environment and reducing waste, then clearly you would have no problem getting re-usable grocery bags and adapting to the times we live in today. Instead, you make excuses about not having convenience in the past?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the common sense, practical, and efficient (human-powered) ways of the past, but they do require sacrifice and commitment - values most people don't have a surplus of today.

 

[Beltman60]

Jinman

thanks for taking my post as it was meant to be
I thought some humor would do some good but I guess every post needs a negative response from someone

 

[Dr_Zinj]

(1) Pollution is waste product.
(2) It is NOT possible to produce anything without producing waste.
(3) It is NOT possible to reuse or recycle 100% of waste.

Both 2 & 3 are based on the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.

Pollution by itself isn't a problem until it exceeds the capacity of the environment to absorb and breakdown. Said absorption and breakdown requiring energy, chemical, biological, or mechanical processes, space, and time to perform the operations.

The unfortunate thing is, people keep filling up those spaces with things they want the way that want them; which doesn't leave space for the pollution and the things that break it down. The only things we can do is get more space, which means moving to other planets and outer space, or limiting the number of people. We get into all kinds of hot ethical, moral, and legal arguments when it comes to the subject of limiting people.

 

[Beltman60]

Deezler

If you look at my first post this was sent to me from a very good friend who is 84 years old
I will let him know that his generation is responsible for the worlds turmoil of today

now I have to get back to writing a check to the state for methane gas pollution for $15 for my kids 4h steer
man I'm glad things are changing for the better

 

[Lou66]

Thought-provoking, stimulating and interesting post.. Lou

 

[mikehaugen]

Just as it was in every other forum on the planet where it appeared. This one's been circling around for years.

First I've read it

 

[brin]

First I've read it too ...thanks for posting it.

 

[houstonscott]

To the point directly, that bag people bring in is a night mare of contamination in a clean environment. Where was that bag before these people walked into the store and plopped it down on the counter where my food is being placed? Was it in their back seat where the dog licks, and sits. Those bags cause disease straight up and more than one of the e Coli outbreaks have been traced to these bags. HS