By Neena Strichart
A couple of nights ago, Steve and I went out for a sushi dinner and then decided to stop at our local Goodwill store to do a bit of shopping on our way back to the office. It seems we often find treasures while browsing at thrift stores. This shopping trip did not disappoint us, as we found several dishes to match Mom’s place settings— a beautiful pattern that was discontinued long ago.
While waiting in line to pay for our purchases, I started thinking that what I was buying was someone else’s castoffs, or better yet, to make me feel environmentally responsible, I was buying recycled goods. I figured being able to link shopping to recycling was a stroke of genius since I had now created a guilt-free way to spend my dollars!
The next day, I was browsing through the postings from my Facebook friends and ran across a composition on recycling. After I finished reading the rather long piece, I decided that I wanted to share it with our readers. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing who authored the piece, as it is labeled as anonymous in every website posting I could find, even the one from csasisters.org (Congregation of Sisters of Saint Agnes in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin). Nevertheless, here is the item below. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I can’t wait to hear what my mom thinks about it.
In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that 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.”
That’s right— they didn’t have the “green thing” in her day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant[s] to be washed and sterilized and refilled, using the same bottles over and over. So, they really were recycled. But, they didn’t have the “green thing” back in her 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’s right. They didn’t have the “green thing” in her day.
Back then, they washed the baby’s diapers because they didn’t have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts; 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 was 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 pizza dish, not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines to do everything for [them]. When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used wadded-up newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. 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 fountain when they were thirsty, instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled 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 took the streetcar, and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus instead of turning their moms into 24-hour taxi services. 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 that old lady is right. They didn’t have the “green thing” back in her day.
Gee— that was my day too!
—Anonymous
