I recently saw this long and lengthy post on an acquaintance’s Facebook page. At first I was interested and wanted to see where it was going to go.
Image from chloesblog.bigmill.com
Checking out at the supermarket recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. I apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days”. The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.” She was right about one thing–our generation didn’t have the green thing in “Our” day. So what did we have back then? After some reflection and soul-searching on “Our” day, here’s what I remembered we did have….
As soon as the person had a chance to respond to the ‘whippersnapper’s’ comment, I knew it was going to run into that trite BS about how life was better in the old days. Worse yet the person continuously makes the comment that we did have this ‘green thing’ back in their day.
What a waste of a ‘teachable’ moment.
You could have regaled that young person with the facts that President Theodore Roosevelt may not have been the first President to create National Parks but he doubled their numbers within his term of office.
Not only that, but he was friends with John Muir, the crazy Scottish fellow who founded the Sierra Club about 100 years ago. The biggest grassroots environmental group was founded that long ago by people considered a little nutty.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.
But wait, I have more. There is Rachel Carson who graduated from college in 1919 (huge feat in those days) to become a biologist. She is credited with creating the contemporary conservation movement and published the groundbreaking Silent Spring in 1962.
Carson would pass away in 1964 but her legacy lived on in The Clean Water Act of 1972 and The Clean Air Act of 1970 as well as the banning of DDT.
Image from Snowyoctonber.blogspot.com
We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.
When the American bald eagle was endangered, it was discovered that the pesticide DDT weakened the shells of eagle eggs and put eaglets at risk when the mother roosted on the eggs. Numbers of the birds had dropped dramatically but were on a resurgence until this pesticide was introduced. DDT was banned in the US in 1973. It took about 20 years for the bird to regain population levels to be taken off the endangered list. To get this done took much lobbying from people in the ‘environmentally conscious’ community.
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 240 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early 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.
Who can forget President Ronald Reagan’s dismissive attitude towards environmentalists, those ‘tree huggers,’ and how instead he claimed trees were killing people. Oh, and remember ‘Acid Rain?’
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 Wales. In the kitchen, we blended & stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us.
I remember back in the 80’s when Chicago had the recycling centers and how I would drive my stuff over. We sorted our glass by color at that time. Blue bags came later. Now, we take our recyclables to a private firm but we can still do it.
What I wish is that people would stop perpetrating the lie that the ‘green thing’ wasn’t happening. There were crunchy people back then who worked to make a difference when they were saving the whales, dolphins, tuna and manatees. Those crunchy people fought for a better environment and to get big business to stop polluting our drinking water sources.
It is easy to sit back and say that trite reminiscent response to try to make the current youth feel guilty because they are smug and this ‘green thing’ is all they have ever known. But what you are really doing is being just as dismissive and ignorant of what was going on in the past as that young cashier.
It means that during the last 50 years you’ve ignored the sad Indian commercials , all of Lady Bird Johnson’s efforts to clean up America and the ‘don’t be a litterbug’ advertising campaigns. You have completely forgotten the gas crisis of the 70s, the electric and hybrid car revolution of the 00s (remember Al Gore’s son getting a speeding ticket in his Prius), and wind turbines.
Image from The Daily Green.com
There was always a ‘green thing’ going on but you choose to mask your ignorance with sentimentality. Meanwhile, there are communities banning those plastic grocery bags. Perhaps now is the best time to start doing that ‘green thingy’ by taking a canvas bag with you whenever you go shopping.
Unless you like appearing as the neighborhood old fart on a regular basis.
Notes from Rumbly Cottage 
Thank you for all your research, which I suspect probably wasn’t research, but stuff you already knew. In Europe and Latin America, grocery shoppers have always carried a net or one shopping bag. I do remember traveling to Europe in the 60’s and 70’s and saving those “lovely” plastic bags that had not caught on yet in the States. Little did I know.
I did not know the stuff about Roosevelt and Muir being friends. That was quite the discovery for me.
EXACTLY> Hear Hear Karyn. Old fashioned is not Bad! Well said.. c
There were things people did back in the old days that were green habits. However, this thing pisses me off for ignoring the efforts people made completely.
Thanks for this. I read that same thing on FB and felt it was so bizarre I didn’t even know how to respond so I ignored it. There is much to ignore of FB. But you confronted it toe to green toe. Good for you.
Thanks. I was wondering how old the person was who wrote this because some of it had to be from the 40s or 30s. Plus it was written by a British person. Americans do not call diapers ‘nappies.’
I saw this recently in an email. Being a baby boomer we recycled in our own way. Granted there were less people back then, too. I remember the first “Earth Day”. My friend was told to bring in a grease board and the kids used them instead of paper and pencils for a day.
Through out the years things changed due to FDA regulations and other facilities claiming certain items “unhealthy” and causing harm and germs to humans like diapers and baby bottles. It was always much better to get rid of the dirty diaper than keep it around in a container and wash them. Or have a service (expensive). Same with baby bottles. Glass breaks. Nipples become dry and crack causing pieces to get ingested. Companies picked up on all this an voila! disposable everything! Throw the mess and dangerous items away.
I don’t think the companies thought about the millions of moms that would pick up on the idea of just simply throwing it out makes life easier, safer and cleaner. I will admit I was one of those millions. I tried the cloth diaper routine and failed miserably at it. Boiling nipples was a hassle. I didn’t have a dishwasher for the bottles. Luckily, my kids were only on bottles for a very short time.
The crying indian was Iron Eyes Cody. Not an indian at all, an Italian/American actor from Louisiana. He did promote a great cause tho and was very convincing of it! It made you think!
I did the cloth diaper thing as well with my first and second, not so much with the last two. But you are right, there is too much of that disposable stuff.
I knew the story about Mr. Cody but, boy, are those commercials effective. Funny thing is that still happens. A month ago I was chasing the dog and caught him because he found take-out food on the side of the road. Of course, he stopped to eat it.
Thanks for this post. Some have been doing the home gardens, yoga, buy local, avoid overly processed food, recycle, avoid plastics, and travel through life / environment gently leaving “few footprints” for a long time – some started in the 50’s. It’s amusing to see how these things get “rediscovered” so frequently – in a cycle. Hopefully more people pick up the “habits” each time the cycle and awareness turns. Humans are notorious for having short memories. Enjoyed the read.
What got to me about this facebook post was the stupidity of the older person. What rock were they living under for the last 50 or more years? When were kitchen appliances starting to be more popular because in the 70s I remember my mother having blenders and mixers. Washing machines and dryers have been around for much longer than that.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Everything old is new again it seems. Current generations often “repackage” former generations’ ideas and innovations and make them theirs. Granted, technologies are new, but the ideas and outcomes are often the same (and sometimes better)–but I’m biased. I’m middle aged (meaning old to those whippersnappers!). 🙂
My job as a kid was to “take the pop bottles back” and darn it, we should bring that practice back! Now I’m the one who takes the throw-aways to the recycling center. Your post caused me to nod and smile a lot. I was a teenager when the first Earth Day was proclaimed in 1970, I was involved in Greenpeace and the young ‘uns had better not talk about “my generation” being the bad guys. We tried. I still do.
I religiously bring my ‘green’ canvas bags with me to the grocery store. I can’t help but notice that whenever I am in the grocery store, I am the ONLY person who has them! And I live in a college town. Ironic.
This is my first visit here and I will return. Thank you for a lovely, thought-provoking post!
I’m still trying to remember to carry my canvas bags into the store. Too many years behavior to unlearn! Thanks for sharing the information, some of it I was not aware of.
I recently saw this on Facebook too, and I thought it was insightful. My grandmothers were both depression era vintage and saved/reused everything. A good reminder of “the good old days!”
If it wasn’t for the fact that I see this kind of post/email too often, I might have done the same. But it ticked me off to see huge accomplishments and pop culture references completely ignored. That Indian commercial was huge way back when.
The older generation didn’t care because well there wasn’t a need to care. I don’t think there were plastic bags then, paper bags and baskets were mostly used. If the clerk cared so much about what needs to be done, how about using the registers like they used to without fancy computers doing the math and counting their change for them. Some people just forget how good they have it. I work in a grocery store for 12 years and I cant imagine counting and doing things manually but then again I don’t complain…
-Paul Wynn
http://www.mostlygrocery.com
Interestingly enough, this response started in the spam box. But apparently the machine made a mistake.
We’ve just had a charge for plastic bags introduced (I’m in Wales) and it’s interesting to see how many shoppers are now visiting the supermarket with ‘old-fashioned’ wicker baskets on their arm – just like people always used to shop… another instance of what goes around, comes around I guess.
I hang onto the few plastic bags I get and generally use them to line bins, etc as they’re supposedly biodegradable. The other day I got out my plastic-bag bag to find one of the older ones had indeed biodegraded. Into lots and lots of smaller bits of plastic. Hm.
I use those plastic bags to pick up dog poop when we go on our
drag the human aboutwalks. I have had neighbors tell me I am one of the few poop picker-upers.This was great. I remember taking bottles back for a refund (milk and pop). Last year we had to clean out my in-laws house after their death. They were in their upper 80’s so they definitely were from the “old days”. We found tons of plastic containers, empty jelly, mustard, etc. jars, plastic bags, paper sacks…..well you get the idea. All cleaned and/or folded and ready to be reused. They recycled in a different way. We of course had to take it all to the recycle center but nothing went into the landfill.
My parents used to save margerine cups all of the time. When they were not home, my brother threw them out. During my days in elder care I saw the collection of paper bags a lot.
You tell ’em, Rumbley C.! Thanks not only for the interesting facts, but for arming me against the next whippersnapper!!
Who else is with me for saving the whales?!?
The Green movement is like the whole political correctness movement; no one seems to know where it came from, why it exists or where its supposed to lead us!
I am not sure if you are being sacastic or serious but I just showed you the seeds of Sierra Club as well as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. It is a small band of people doing and teaching what is right for our environment. There will always be those people who take it too far but there are small things that all of us can do to make the planet healthier.