When Life Itself Was A Green Movement

You know how sentimental we old-timers are about things from the past, especially those we recognize as part of the fabric of our youth. And you probably know that we are apt to exaggerate how wonderful the “good old days” were compared to today… how simple and pure they seemed in contrast to the present high tech, high energy life one is almost forced to live.

Now, I would hope that no one of good will would begrudge us those rose colored memories, no matter how embellished they may have become over time. However, we oldsters must be careful not to use such reveries to contrast with, then deprecate the life style of today’s younger generation who were born into a much more complex society than we.

In my opinion, that’s what the e-mail I’m sharing today has unintentionally done. Written to make the point that the older generation did less harm to the planet than today’s “enlightened” generation, the writer seems to have missed an important point in his or her attempt to show there was greater environmental integrity way back then. Here’s the e-mail:

In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

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

He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

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 the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old 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 a wadded up old newspaper 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 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 old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart-alecky young person.

Now, I must admit that when I first read this, my impulse was to yell, “Right on, Older Lady… stick it to that know-it-all, Smart Ass Punk.” But then it hit me. While we old timers did all of what she mentioned, we did it because we HAD TO, not because we had some heightened notion about preserving the planet. In fact, as I mentioned in another post, I don’t think I even heard the words “ecology” or "conservation" until I was in my twenties.

As a kid I can remember pushing the lawn mower over an expanse of lawn on the side of our house that seemed to be the size of a football field. And the older and rustier the mower was, (which describes ours), or the shorter the pusher‘s height (which definitely describes me), the tougher the task. So if someone would have offered me an easier and quicker way to shorten the grass, including dropping off some sheep to graze, I would have gone for it in a second.

I can also remember my Grandma sending me on those seemingly endless treks to Zucchari’s Dairy to get four full quarts of milk in glass bottles. Those buggers seemed to be filled with lead, and I’d have to change carrying arms every twenty or so feet. Not to mention how the handle of the wire basket cut into my delicate, piano practicing hands on the way home. I was so excited and thankful when home delivery began in our neighborhood, by truck.

And I can see my stained fingers after trying to fill my fountain pen with ink despite every attempt at being careful. Not only that, I remember the ink blobs that messed up my written work and forced me to start over after I shook the pen to get the ink flowing through a blocked tip. Man, I would have killed to have one of those disposable Bics they sell today.

While I personally never had to wash clothes, I remember that the process took my Grandma the best part of a day to complete. Though we had a vertical agitator machine, each piece being washed had to be put through the wringer to squeeze out excess water, thus reducing the drying time needed on the clothes line. Then, after returning them in a basket to the third floor apartment, each piece had to be ironed to remove the wrinkles before you could wear it. There was no such thing as, “I need this shirt in fifteen minutes for a hot date.” If that was the case, you were out of luck. Oh, if efficient washers and driers, plus permanent press fabric would only have been around back then,
Grandma would have had far more disposable time, and I might have had a more successful dating life.

My mom would have gone nuts to have Pampers when I was a baby. Out of necessity, she made diapers out of flannel cloth she bought by the yard, then brought home and cut up into the correct sizes to cover my highly active infant waste ports.

And we did have to walk up stairs because there were no escalators to transport us, or walk, ride a bike, or take the bus across longer distances because families like us could not afford the expense of buying and operating an automobile. By the time I was in High School, however, I had my “hot” 1950 Mercury, and probably never again walked any farther than the distance it took me to retrieve it from the garage.

As far as ordering pizza, there was absolutely no need to “search” for it using any advanced devices other than your eyes and your feet. There was one shop I could see from our second floor porch, two Italian restaurants within walking distance that included it on their menu, plus two bakeries I passed on the way home from school that made not only fresh Italian bread, but pizza (on two by three foot baking sheets, no less), that was sold by the slice.

The same goes for the rest of the examples used in the e-mail to infer how environmentally responsible we oldsters were. The truth is, we had little or no choice. We were just living life as we knew it. And, had we magically awakened one morning in a high tech society like we have today, what are the chances even someone like me would have begun writing multiple copies of this post using a fountain pen, then mailed each of you a hard copy using an envelope and three cent stamp?