Checking out at the supermarket recently the young cashier suggested I should bring my own bags because plastic bags were not good for the environment.
I apologised and explained, “We didn’t have these things back in my earlier days.”
The cashier responded “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”
Back then we returned milk pop and beer bottles to be washed, sterilised and refilled.
We walked to the local shops and didn’t climb into a car every time we had to go two minutes up the road.
Back then we washed babies’ nappies because we didn’t have the throwaway kind.
We dried them on a clothes line, not an energy gobbling machine so wind and solar power really did dry our clothes.
Kids got hand-me-down clothes from relatives, not always new designer labelled stuff.
Back then we had one TV or radio in the house, not one in every room.
In the kitchen we stirred and blended by hand rather than having electric machines for everything.
When we posted a fragile item we used screwed up old newspaper as packaging, not plastic foam or bubblewrap.
Back then we didn’t burn petrol to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power.
We exercised by walking and working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on exercise machine run by electricity.
We drank from a fountain instead of purchasing plastic bottles of water.
We refilled ink in writing pens and replaced blades in razors.
Back then we took the bus and kids rode their bikes or walked to school.
A stag night meant a few mates going on a pub crawl, not two dozen people flying to Prague.
Back then we didn’t need a computer to receive a signal beamed from a satellite 2,000 miles out in space just to show a photo of a meal we had just prepared to a friend who lives next door.
But, of course we weren’t green back then.

 

and if someone who was really concerned would add a few ingrediants to the plastic bag, it would disolve in a reasonable time when exposed to sunlight, instead of hanging on a fence or tree for years.

 

and if someone who was really concerned would add a few ingrediants to the plastic bag, it would disolve in a reasonable time when exposed to sunlight, instead of hanging on a fence or tree for years.

Unfortunately all the reserves of that chemical are tied up in the plastics of the products we buy and expect to stay intact and use ful for years to come.

It puts me in a hate filled rage when anything that should be a durable good immediately starts to fade and fall apart when left in direct sunlight for any period of time especially when it's made of plastic or synthetic rubber that's supposed to take thousands of years to break down.

 

Checking out at the supermarket recently the young cashier suggested I should bring my own bags because plastic bags were not good for the environment.

A few years ago a few stores tried going to the green bag thing and offered a 5% discount on your purchase if you bought one of their cloth bags for a 1$ at check out.

Worked great! Anytime I had a purchase of over $20 I bought one of the those green bags for a 1$ and got my 5% off. I must have bought close to a hundred of them while they were running those promotions saving me hundreds on my purchases.

Now the bags cost 2$ and there is no 5% discount to go with using them.

 

We walked to the local shops and didn’t climb into a car every time we had to go two minutes up the road.
We exercised by walking and working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on exercise machine run by electricity.

Yes, it is getting harder and harder to get exercise. I drove to the gym yesterday and circled the strip-mall parking lot for a half hour before I could get spot close to the door. That's a lot of wasted time just to get 20 minutes of time on the treadmill.

 

Yes, it is getting harder and harder to get exercise. I drove to the gym yesterday and circled the strip-mall parking lot for a half hour before I could get spot close to the door. That's a lot of wasted time just to get 20 minutes of time on the treadmill.

All you have to do is remove the hydraulics from your car's steering system... bet you'd get award-winning shoulders and forearms after a couple of weeks... I know it 'cause my own car failed that way once, and man... was my wife pleased with the results!

 

All you have to do is remove the hydraulics from your car's steering system... bet you'd get award-winning shoulders and forearms after a couple of weeks... I know it 'cause my own car failed that way once, and man... was my wife pleased with the results!

I had a old Rambler Ambassador with a steering wheel the size of a UFO. You needed big arms to park that monster.

 

I had a old Rambler Ambassador with a steering wheel the size of a UFO. You needed big arms to park that monster.

I sure hope that's not you in the pic... I'd find it hard to have a civilized disagreement with you...

 

I sure hope that's not you in the pic... I'd find it hard to have a civilized disagreement with you...

Not me but I was pretty buff at the time I had the car. Gravity and beer have not been kind, most of the bulk has moved downward but I'm still hillbilly strong.

 

Not me but I was pretty buff at the time I had the car. Gravity and beer have not been kind, most of the bulk has moved downward but I'm still hillbilly strong.

A strong, beer-drinking hillbilly... who would've ever imagined?

 

A strong, beer-drinking hillbilly... who would've ever imagined?

Back then... almost everything we did was manual labor or walking or running and we wasted nothing. Nobody gave a moments notice about walking fields hauling buckets of water or loading hay all day in the sun. I remember boot camp physicals where the city boys couldn't do one pull-up while us farm boys could do 20 with another person on their back and run 5 miles backward without breaking a sweat. I'm getting to be an old man but I can still out lift my 20 something son but then I'd have to sit down, drink a beer and sleep for a day.

 

The steering wheel on the first vehicle i drove was about the same size. Steering was likely more difficult.

 

The steering wheel on the first vehicle i drove was about the same size. Steering was likely more difficult.

I don't see any turn signal lights on that thing...

 

I don't see any turn signal lights on that thing...

That's ok, I didn't have any blind-spots so knew who was going to get squashed when I took a left turn.

 

That's ok, I didn't have any blind-spots so knew who was going to get squashed when I took a left turn.

Last time I drove one of those was back in 1981... LaGrange, OH...
it's been a while

 

The steering wheel on the first vehicle i drove was about the same size. Steering was likely more difficult.

We still have tractors like that and use them regularly and I can say that they are pretty easy to steer. Most anemic teens of today could easily steer one of those unless it has a loader on it.

I started driving ours with a loader on it when I was 13 - 14. I wasn't until grandpa screwed up his shoulder driving it that it got its first power steering conversion.

 

The steering wheel on the first vehicle i drove was about the same size. Steering was likely more difficult.

Nice, I seem to remember our farm equipment didn't have a wheel but it might have had handlebars.

I also seem to remember my horsey was a little strange and didn't move very fast.

 

We still have tractors like that and use them regularly and I can say that they are pretty easy to steer. Most anemic teens of today could easily steer one of those unless it has a loader on it.

I started driving ours with a loader on it when I was 13 - 14. I wasn't until grandpa screwed up his shoulder driving it that it got its first power steering conversion.

The M was a pain in the ass and already had 35 to 40 years of hard use when I started driving it. Changing the steering worm gear was not an option until it failed completely unless I wanted to pay for it myself. Not an option. It had other issues as well. Missing PTO guard was memorable on several occasions.

 

In the old days my mother sent me (a child) shopping list, cash & string bag in hand to walk to the village shopping center. And a verbal reminder -"Careful you don't break the eggs either".
In those days we didn't worry about child stealers. A man brought ice on a flat bed truck to our street and shouted "Ice for sale!" A block of dripping ice was slotted neatly into our little ice chest which served the needs of a large extended family.
I played cricket for hours in the back yard or the local park. No TV. I went home when mum stood at the front gate and called my name to come in for dinner. No mobile phone in my pocket.
What do these supposedly green experts know of simple living....

 

In the old days my mother sent me (a child) shopping list, cash & string bag in hand to walk to the village shopping center. And a verbal reminder -"Careful you don't break the eggs either".
In those days we didn't worry about child stealers. A man brought ice on a flat bed truck to our street and shouted "Ice for sale!" A block of dripping ice was slotted neatly into our little ice chest which served the needs of a large extended family.
I played cricket for hours in the back yard or the local park. No TV. I went home when mum stood at the front gate and called my name to come in for dinner. No mobile phone in my pocket.
What do these supposedly green experts know of simple living....

In those days (I was 7) my dad used to give me money and send me to the small store around the corner to buy cigarettes and beer... the owner just handed them over without asking any questions.