Friday, April 27, 2012

The Green Thing- Join in - The pool and a review - April 27, 2012

                                                   The Pool Where I Swim




Gosh, some days there is not a whole lot to write about and then again, other days there are.
 
I finally took the plunge, literally.  Went to the pool.  It was so hot.  I went and got my bottled water, stopped at the library, and it was so hot that as soon as I got home I changed and into the pool I went.  It felt so nice and relaxing.  If I wasn't afraid of drowning, I could have fallen asleep in there.  I can't find the exercises from the therapist to do, so I just walked and floated.  My back was hurting so much and I wasn't sure I could pull myself up the steps.  Still feeling really sore, but I am going to try to do it more often. The truth..  I am hurting really bad. ha ha
 
Product Review: Coppertone Spray....  Yuck.. When you are laying in the sun and even afterwards it feels sort of gummy.  I had to really scrub it off in the shower.  I would not buy that again.  I figured being I have to apply it myself and sure as heck can't reach my back, it would be good thing.  Not.  I may use it for my back to get rid of it, but that's it.  I will stick with my Bain deSoleil and regular Coppertone.  Is there anything that smells like summer like Coppertone.  Love the coconutty smell.  ha ha
 
An old high school classmate posted the following today, and I thought it was so cool that I decided to put it on here, and expand on it.
 
“The Green Thing"

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda 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 over and over. So they really were recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.

But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

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.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 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.

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 Montana . 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 wadded up 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 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, 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 have the green thing 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 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

I also remember Charlie Chips (Charles Chips, but we called them Charlie Chips) They would come in a big can and when you ran out they would just refill your can...  

Stockings, not pantyhose, so that when you got a run in one leg, you didn't have to throw out the whole thing.  Just replace it with another one.

Opened windows instead of air conditioning - I can not live without air now...

Wax paper instead of plastic bags

Can you think of any other things we did "way back when"?  Let me know..

Until the next time.....
                                                        

2 comments: