Current Events > Boomers were too wasteful and destroyed the environment

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yesterday after shopping in our local supermarket, I was in the line at the Check Out, and heard when the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment.

The woman apologized to the young girl & then sighed, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. You folk didn't do enough to save our environment for future generations."

The older lady said "Ahh yes you're right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day." She sighed then continued:

Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles & beer bottles to the shops. The shops then sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized & refilled, so those same bottles were used over & over, thus REALLY were recycled. But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Grocery stores put our groceries into brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) were not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on their brown paper bag/covers. But, too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.

I remember how we walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store or office building; walked to the grocery store & didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go 200 yards. But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.

Back then we washed the baby's nappies 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 & solar power really did dry our clothes back in our days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. . . . But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Back then we had one radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And if anyone did own a TV, it had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of a football pitch. When cooking we blended & stirred by hand coz we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send by post, we used layers of old newspapers 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 tap or 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, & we replaced the razor blade 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 bus & kids rode bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's expensive car or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing"..

Oh and 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 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest leisure park.

. . . . But it so sad this current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then? . . . I think you should forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from some smart ass young person. .. ...

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smart ass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much. \_()_/
---

I read the first four paragraphs before realizing the true length. I'm out

I know this is some copy-paste.

But either way, it doesn't describe the Boomers.
Most of the things described here would have been, 'The Greatest' Generation.
---

Boomers didn't wreck the environment exactly. China, India and USA account for what 50% of the world's pollution.

SiO4 posted...

Most of the things described here would have been, 'The Greatest' Generation.

Keeping up the trend of boomers being under the collective delusion that they fought in WWII

---

Doom_Art posted...

Keeping up the trend of boomers being under the collective delusion that they fought in WWII

They need to think more about Vietnam, and where we are now.
---

yeah

ok

but avocado toast

---

Old boomer lady says they didn't used to have green things, so boomer rants about young people being ignorant of being green back in the day?

TheBlueMonk_ posted...

avocado

the only green energy i need

---

Doom_Art posted...

the only green energy i need

Tried it on a burger the other day, was seriously not impressed.

Goes well with a tomato, mozzarella, and balsamic though.

---

Plastic bags have a way better usage/environmental cost ratio than other types of shopping bags. This is because they are easy to manufacture. They can also be reused. As long as you don't throw them into the nature, they're the most environmentally conscious option.

---

Ignoring the copypastaness of this, it's nonsense because you can't take credit for what was standard when you were a child. It was boomer businessmen and politicians and consumers who normalized all the changes that created the very non green world we live in now. Boomers are responsible for sacrificing the planet for profits and for politicizing it so that people who argue against it are leftist socialist doomsayers.

---

I dont blame a generation that doesnt know and I dont praise a generation that just so happen to find out

Aint no prizes for that in my book - theres a large disconnect between now and then and quite frankly it wasnt really surprising considering the dawn of the internet flipped things around some in terms of what we prioritize and how we prioritize things

Its incredibly simple to get along with them so I dont really understand why people have a problem with them to begin with.. always seemed stupid to say these old people ruined my life and see a picture of some frail ass 90 year old sitting in a wheelchair


---

Kids dont use paper bag book covers anymore?

---

BeyondWalls posted...

Kids dont use paper bag book covers anymore?

millennials dont even have books anymore they have ipads -_-
---