GOING GREEN...

IN LIGHT OF EARTH~DAY,
I THOUGHT I'D SHARE THIS E-MAIL THAT WAS SENT TO ME...

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

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 is 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 you. 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. But they didn't
have the

green thing back then.

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 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 pizza joint.

But that old lady is right. They
didn’t have

the green thing back in

her day.

¡HAPPY EARTH~DAY!