Don't make old people mad......

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  clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not  care enough to save our environment for future  generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the  green thing in its day or didn't call it "green."

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.

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. 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 2,000 miles out in space in order to  find the nearest pizza joint.

But the current generation  laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the  green thing back then?



Remember:  Don't make old people mad!
We  don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to  tick us off.