From an email:
In the queue at the store, the shop assistant told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologised to him and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”
The assistant responded, “That’s our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment.”
He was right, that generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.
Back then, they returned their bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilised and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over again.
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 or lift in every store and office building. They shopped once a week at most, 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 throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an 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.
Back then they carefully undid parcels, folded the paper and used it again.
But that old lady is right; they didn’t have the green thing back in her day.
Back then, they had one TV, radio and phone in the house and no computers, mobile phones or other electronic gadgets.
In the kitchen, they mixed, stirred, grated and cut by hand because they didn’t have electric machines.
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.
Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol 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.
Back then they grew almost all their own vegetables and a lot of their fruit – and preserved what they couldn’t use fresh.
They drank from a glass or drinking fountain the tap when they were thirsty instead of from a plastic bottle.
They refilled their 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 walked or took a bus and kids rode their bikes to school 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 cafe.
Back then they reused and recycled because they didn’t have enough to waste. But they didn’t have the green thing back then.
Homepaddock 
Ele! You’re a closet Luddite!
Welcome to the club.
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Right on the button.
You shoulda seen the look of the young chick’s face at Baker’s Delight when I asked for a paper bag rather than plastic because it’s easier to carry in one hand.
What shocked her was my telling her I had walked and
was walking the 2 km home.
I’m proud to say I’ve never spent a cent on gym fees and never will but I bet I can out walk most fifty year olds and a fair few forty year olds.
I know an fellow who is 88 and still walks nearly 100 km per week. He just takes a bit longer now.
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Adolf, do you know him well enough to tell him where he lives. He is obviously lost or perhaps he just hasn’t got enough to do.
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Well said! 🙂
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I enjoyed this. I recall getting 2d (tuppence or twopence) for a returned fizz bottle. In those days there were fewer refrigerators in homes so food shopping was undertaken most days. The carrier of choice was often a cane basket. The best willow cane basket I ever saw was made by a blind man at Waianakura in North Otago. The cane basket survived many hundreds of visits to the grocery.
Plastic bags are handy though, and I would miss them if they were scrapped to sate the weird demands of a hippie or two.
Having an appreciation of a few things from the past doesn’t make one a Luddite which is essentially a pejorative term for those who fear the present day and what it ushers. (KG cannot restrain himself from wallowing in cynicism and un-funny abuse!)
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That KG! I’m sick to the back teeth of him!
I loved your ‘blind-man-at-Waianakarua-with-cane’ Cad.
Was it white?
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I recall we had a number of string bags which expanded nicely to fit most loads. The other items were maori flax kits (kete). Most 4-Square and IGA had a bicycle delivery service as well with boys dropping stuff at the shoppers door
As for this ” Thats our problem today, the former generation did not care enough to save our environment” The worst thing we did was sire morons to populate the planet after us.
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Ah we were destroying the planet there and then when we burnt kerosene for light right under the flame.
Green in the parlance of the day was all about callow, inexperienced untrained, oh and those ghastly vegetables we had to eat. I well remember refusing fresh green peas one Xmas due entirely to the fact they were unknown to me, Now cabbage, silverbeet and Parsley they were familiar.
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