A humorous but serious post about going green and saving money at the same time. This post represents a time that is not too long ago. It demonstrates just how much our lives have changed in the last 50 years. Our energy foot prints have changed. We thought our readers might enjoy this simple explanation of what it really means to go green:
Stories from the past that are so true!!!!!!!
In the line at the store, a young cashier told an older woman that she should reduce her energy foot print and bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags take a lot of energy to produce and are not goof for our environment
The woman apologized to him and explained,“We didn’t worry about energy foot prints back in my day.”
The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today…….
Your generation did not care enough to reduce energy consumption and save our environment.”
He was right — our generation didn’t worry about energy foot prints.
Back then, we recycled milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store returned 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 worry about energy foot prints back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an elevator or an escalator in every store and office building.
We walked or biked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.
But he was right. We didn’t worry about energy foot prints 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 clerk is right; we didn’tworry about energy foot prints 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 Texas .
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 burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We shoveled snow by hand and did not use a gas guzzling pollution spewing snow blower. Working gave us exercise so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But he’s right; we didn’t worry about energy foot prints 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.
Writing pens were refilled 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 worry about energy foot prints 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 worry about energy foot prints back then?