Going Green

Parksy

Moderator
Nov 12, 2009
11,904
2,399
40,935
Visit site
In the line at the supermarket, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because 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."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."

She was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, soft drink bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the factory to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. They were recycled. But they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's 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 was right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.
Back then, they washed the baby's nappies because they didn't have the throwaway kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in a 220 volt energy gobbling machine - 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 handkerchief, not a screen the size of a cricket pitch. 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 a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. They didn't have air conditioning or electric stoves with self cleaning ovens. They didn't have battery operated toys, computers, or telephones. Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn fuel just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They used hand operated clippers to trim the shrubs. 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 glass filled from the tap when they were thirsty instead of using a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled their writing 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 walked or took the bus and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus instead of turning their mums 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.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they didn't have the green thing back then?
smiley-wink.gif
 
Dec 14, 2006
3,205
5
20,685
Visit site
Well said, Parksy! I remember collecting glass bottles which had been used for lemonade or dandelion and burdock - and taking them back to the local shop where you got some money for each one! Those with the black stoppers were worth more - but I can't remember how much. No waste was generated at all - tins became plant pots to be re-used, paper was burned on the fire (or used behind the door in the outside loo), cardboard was stored away for re-packaging other things, even old clothes were recycled into 'clippy rugs' and the whole family sat around making them on a Sunday! Sugar was measured out from a large barrel, with a scoop into a blue bag, and if you took your own blue bag back the next lot of sugar was a bit cheaper. Butter and cheese were cut from a block and wrapped in greaseproof paper which was then used to top a steamed pudding, vegetables came from the garden or a friend's allotment, or were carried home from the market in a wicker shopping basket, or in the tray under the baby's pram. Bacon was sliced to order - thick, middle, thin, see-through, and then wrapped in greaseproof. The shop assistants could fold a mean parcel with neat corners which kept everything in place. Clothes shops had things on rails, and things were'nt packed in cellophane, with plastic hangers, cardboard labels, descriptions on a paper label stuck on the front, and held in place with cardboard and pins everywhere. If you were young and trendy you made your own clothes from a pattern, and some fabric from the remnant shop. Sometimes we used to call there on our way home from our Saturday Jobs (yes we had those too), bought the fabric and sat frantically sewing for an hour or two, going out to the 'Fifty/Fifty at the Kings Hall' wearing the latest trendy creation of a smock dress, or denim maxi skirt! The chemist made up medicines and put them into clean glass bottles (which you took back) or pills into little round cardboard boxes with cardboard lids - not individually packeted in foil strips inside a cardboard box. Some chemists still rolled their own pills on little brass ribbed apparatus.
We also managed to meet our friends and boyfriends without having to speak to them every five minutes - indeed most of us didn't have a telephone, and yet we could be sure that the boyfriend would be waiting for you to get off the 7.30 outside the Town Hall on a Friday night (unless he'd stood you up of course, which did happen occasionally!)
And I'm from the post-war baby boomer generation, who was a teenager in the early-sixties and grew up with the Beatles, not some aged old crone!!
 
Apr 20, 2009
5,482
827
25,935
Visit site
Wow down memory lane and I was a teenager in mid 70's and even I can remember most of it, especially cutting my Nan's football pitch, lawn really but it felt like a pitch with the push pull mower and clipping the edges by hand.

Confession time now. I remember the lemonade bottles which you got a refund on (think it was 6d) we use to "borrow" them from the back of the Chipshop and take them back in to get the refund. The owner did catch on after a while and use to then mark the bottles, thought he was a real spoil sport.
smiley-embarassed.gif
 
Jul 1, 2009
2,142
1
0
Visit site
yes it was great t,b ricketts 3 day week powercuts the blitz strikes national front kkk cross ply tyres gas mantles in van smogg vasta meals (what was they ment to taste like)izal bog papper . head lice white dog poo ,brother hood of man wurrzels buttlins ponttins colditz yes it was great.
 
Aug 17, 2010
256
0
18,680
Visit site
Gagakev said:
Wow down memory lane and I was a teenager in mid 70's and even I can remember most of it, especially cutting my Nan's football pitch, lawn really but it felt like a pitch with the push pull mower and clipping the edges by hand.

Confession time now. I remember the lemonade bottles which you got a refund on (think it was 6d) we use to "borrow" them from the back of the Chipshop and take them back in to get the refund. The owner did catch on after a while and use to then mark the bottles, thought he was a real spoil sport.
smiley-embarassed.gif
We used to do exactly the same with the lemo bottles.As far as the three day week went, I remember my dad nearly having a heart attack because he thought it was compulsory.
 
Apr 20, 2009
5,482
827
25,935
Visit site
Nothing wrong with the Wurzels, saw them live last year at Open air concert, they were hilarious with there banter.
 
Apr 20, 2009
5,482
827
25,935
Visit site
mullsy1 said:
We used to do exactly the same with the lemo bottles.As far as the three day week went, I remember my dad nearly having a heart attack because he thought it was compulsory.
[/quote]

Makes me feel better now I know I was'nt the only one.
smiley-smile.gif
 

Parksy

Moderator
Nov 12, 2009
11,904
2,399
40,935
Visit site
forest gump said:
yes it was great t,b ricketts 3 day week powercuts the blitz strikes national front kkk cross ply tyres gas mantles in van smogg vasta meals (what was they ment to taste like)izal bog papper . head lice white dog poo ,brother hood of man wurrzels buttlins ponttins colditz yes it was great.
Blimey FG, you didn't have TB and Ricketts did you?
smiley-surprised.gif

TB is still prevalent and cases are on the increase, didn't Rickett and Colman make the bag blue which we once washed white shirts in?
It's only a matter of time before the power cuts return, some say that the opening shots of World War 3 have already been fired in the Middle East and Afghanistan and a terror blitz is a distinct possibility.
Extrermist political parties still exist and are still on the outer fringes of poltical life, processed food is making youngsters obese and it all started with Vesta curries (which would never have been allowed into our cupboards so I never tasted them)
Colditz - Camp Gitmo in Cuba, what's the difference?
The Wurzels and the Brotherhood of Man are still around and at least their songs were not depressing dirges like some of the rubbish today.
No industry left to create the smog but kids still get nits, bogies or Jack O Bannocks which were common terms for head lice back then.
Some of the bog paper is worse than Izal, it's probably installed in Butlins and Pontins which just leaves the gas mantles (which gave more light than some of the pathetic 'energy saving' lightbulbs that we are now forced to buy) and the white dog poo which I'd have thought would have been easier to pick up for responsible dog owners.
Not much changes does it?
smiley-undecided.gif
 
Apr 30, 2008
351
0
0
Visit site
didn't Rickett and Colman make the bag blue which we once washed white shirts in?

[/quote]

smiley-surprised.gif
Dolly Blue! ( I think I remember my mum calling it that anyway :) )
 

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts