The green thing

Just arrived in an e mail.

When at a store checkout the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own shopping bags in future because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologised and explained, "We didn't have this green thing 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."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The shop 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. 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 blunt.
But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every shop and office building. We walked to the shop and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two streets.
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 2200watts -- 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 county of Yorkshire. 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 post, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not polystyrene or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol 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 water from a fountain or a tap when we were thirsty instead of demanding a plastic bottle flown in from another country. We accepted that a lot of food was seasonal and didn’t expect to have out of season products flown thousands of air miles around the world. We actually cooked food that didn’t come out of a packet, tin or plastic wrapping and we could even wash our own vegetables and chop our own salad.
But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people caught a train or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical socket in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerised gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza place.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we oldies were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart-ass young person.


Remember: Don't make old people mad. We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off...

 

How true. I remember doing all those things.

In fact when I walked to school it was 3 miles uphill in both directions.

 

You missed that if you didn't eat all your dinner, it turned into the next days meal in the form of broth/stew or bubble and squeak, if you fell and hurt yourself you got called stupid given a plaster if you were bleeding or an ice pack for a bump on the head, not rushed to A&E

 

Well Bob, you and I are the same age and of the same generation and I remember all of those things as well. When I was a kid our TV was a small thing and it was black and white. One Friday night, my Dad came home with a colour TV and my sister and brother and I were facinated by it. As far as computers go, that was beyond the beyond, something they talked about on Star Trek. 30 years ago I worked in the purchasing department in a large materials handling compay. I remember when they bought an IBM systems 34 machine. My current Pc would blow that away. Technology certainly has come a long way in our lifetime.

 

Many years ago when I was a sales rep, a customer said to come and look at their new computer. It was in a room with an airlock. The room was about twenty feet X twelve. Everyone was in white overalls. Their was a bank of cabinets with large spinning wheels. It had cost in the region of £50,000,000. My present watch is probably better that that machine was.

 

You were bred tough to survive all those years ago.
We have bred a cotton wool generation of late.

 

Sadly, while not the wasters we seem to some, my generation DID cause some serious harm, I'm 58. Now and then I'll get asked "What's wrong with kids today?" and always my answer is that I am what's wrong with kids today. By 'I' I mean my generation. When you take away the rights of parents and schools to discipline a child how can you expect that child to be disciplined?

I know, I know... my generation is not the sole cause but I think that we did more harm in this direction than any other 5 combined.

 

I don't think it was our generation. My kids went to school when capital punishment, a ruler across the knuckles or slap in the back of the head, was still discipline of choice. I did not shy away from giving them a spanking when they deserved it.

It was the generation after us. The 40 something people. They have turned every generation after into wimps.

My oldest son and I, he is 32, had this conversation the other day. He is a cop. He was sent on a call. Domestic disturbance. When he got there this kid answered the door in tears. He wanted his dad arrested for abusing him. To make a long story short after he talked to everyone it turned out this kid did something bad and got disciplined for it with a good spanking.

 

I think Bob's closer with the age group as I can remember the Cain being banned in my last years at school, 14/15 but I would say the problem is the idiot that wrote a report saying that corporal punishment doesn't work and violence leads to more violence, and children exposed to violent media are more likely to be violent.

and yes I say idiot, moron or any other insult questioning his IQ level, because if the above was true, their should have been a massive increase in violent crime from 1945 onwards, or would someone like to argue the population of the world wasn't exposed to violence from 1939 to 1945?

 

I know the psychiatrists name that wrote the book that teachers use as a handbook to deal with disruptive students. I just don't remember the name. I got into a heated argument with a teacher about it too. She went by the book and when a student was disrupting the class she would give them a timeout. I told here if you did that in my day you'd have students laughing at you.

Yep it was much more unsafe in my day. Not. I could go out at night without getting shot or mugged. I could wear any color shirt I pleased without being shot. Sure we had gangs back then we just weren't killing each other. There were 2 in my neighborhood. Did the 2 have disagreements? Of course. Did we fight. Hell yes and when we did fight it was gang against gang and not gang against an individual. The thing we didn't do was kill each other.

 

Of course it is opinion as to what affects what but I think that I have the right age group. What we did to affect change would not show in our own generation but the next. How we treated our children in the late 60s through the 70s is the affect that caused the changes.

Expose children to violence in media??? Ever watch Saturday morning cartoons???

 

I grew up in the late 60's and early 70's and I used what I learned and treated my kids the same way I was treated. Many from my generation did the same. We are creatures of habit so what one lives through is what one teaches. I instilled those same values in my kids.

So from my perspective the generation after mine, the kids of the late 70's and early 80's have the same values and live by the same rules. I started to observe change in the late 80's and 90's so the 40 year old range is about right.

 

It was and is the element of fear, do we want to live in a society full of fear?

I will say that any one who does something wrong against me, I want them to be in fear of the punishment they will get!

Without that fear of the punishment, and lets face it, some folks do a crime just to have a night in the shelter of a small prison, no fear of prison any more is there?

So without that fear, this is why society is the mess that it is. We have gone soft and taken the fear out of living, without it we cannot know properly what is right or wrong.

Nev.

 

If I remember right things started to change for the worse towards the end of the 70's early 80's when violent video's and video games were blamed for a number of random violent crimes, which resulted in a number of studies and reports, which in turn resulted in a general move towards none violent punishment.

But a little knowledge in the hands of an expert is dangerous, was it not an expert that decided the world was flat, that witch craft was a real and justifiable threat, and a quick look through history reveals numerous cases of experts getting things wrong. but it would seem a government is reluctant to admit experts make mistakes. till of course another expert writes a new report with new proven evidence. to tell us what the majority of people worked out years ago on their own.

 

I have only one child my Mick and I have never laid a hand on her in her whole life. I was a devious rascal, when I was young and my parents handed out corporal punishment to me all the time. I was spanked and got the occasional slap across the head from my mum, when I deserved it. I don't agree with corporal punishment because it only hurts for a while and it only makes your kid fear you, not respect you. I believe in respect and I believe in using psychology when dealing with kids. Such as deprivation, when my Mick was bad or naughty, I took away the things she loved and sent her to her room. That made more of an impact than a spanking would have. Such as no bed time stories, no TV, then later no computer and so on. There is enough violence in this world, so why be violent to kids.

 

Well said Ricardo, I use the same technique to blackmail my son into behaving, and have never had to, or needed to use violence to discipline him, in fact he associates a change in the tone of Dads voice with loosing a privilege.

But ......

My son has had stability and love all his life, I don't lie to him or try and avoid his questions, if I say something is wrong I'll try to explain why. in a way he understands. fortunately my son is lucky. he doesn't see Mom and Dad argue over contact arrangements, divorce settlements, who he can see when he is with Mom, or when he is with Dad, he doesn't get shoved off to some child minder while Mom and Dad are at work, he doesn't have to live with changing house and school every time Mom and Dad can afford a bigger house. he has a Mom and Dad that aren't to tired to sit and talk or play with him in the evenings, if he has a problem he has someone who will listen and help him. which is why positive parenting has worked and worked well.

Unfortunately not all children have what my son has, and a child with emotional problems won't respond in the same way to positive parenting, and unfortunately most parents are more concerned with their careers, wealth and image than what's best for their children. and for these children positive parenting don't work, and as being as you can't slap your child without repercussions now days, where does this leave a child's discipline.

Then their are Children that come from Violent homes, where parents have Alcohol, Drug problems, parents that just don't have or care about disciplining their children etc

Then we send them to school, and one thing Kids do well regardless is learn, regardless of what they should be learning they also learn from each other, In a perfect society all Kids would be disciplined the way Recardo and I do, and then their wouldn't be any problems, unfortunately we don't live in a perfect society, and children don't spend enough time at school for positive discipline methods to work.

so in my opinion the changes that took place in the early 80's to remove corporal punishment from schools was foolish and ill thought through, the move to discourage parents from using violence to discipline was a mistake and were reaping the rewards of this mistake in today's society. basically in an effort to stop violent child abuse we've created a whole new set of problems that no one seems to have an answer to.

 

Back at you Match and well said too. I was a loose cannon, when I was a kid, I was very independant and wanted things my why which led to conflict with my parents. They were old school and believed in hitting kids as a form of discipline. I wasn't abused by them but if I needed punishment, I got it. Later on, in my teen years I use to think about that a lot. I said to myself, if some day if I married and had a family, I wouldn't do that to my kids and I didn't. I guess I am the exception, but I thought, hey, I am supposed to be the adult and there must be a better way to discipline kids as opposed to corporal punishment. Amongst other things, I studied psychology in university, so, I thought I would give that a go and it worked with my daughter. I was and have been good to her all her life and all a parent should ever want is respect from their kids. She respects me and she learned, at a young age, the meaning of the word NO. She only embarassed Dad once in public, when she was 6 years old and I used psychology to deal with it. I was and am not a perfect parent but I learned how to deal with an independant child and I love her to pieces, told her that every night before bed and if nothing else, she respects me.

Cheers: Rich

 

PS: my parents were English, from old school Britain.

 

One of the most important duties we have in life is raising our children and it's one of the few things that doesn't come with a "how to" manual.
Because children are not all the same and react different to different kinds of Discipline.
We can only hope what upbringing we gave them sets them up for life where they will be a pillar of society.
If raised properly you will be proud of them.

 

Well said Dougie and I agree with that. I am very proud of my Mick, thank the Lord that she turned out to be a very fine young woman. She never gave me a lick of trouble, didn't come home at 16 years old and tell me she was pregnant. She was an honour student all through school, grade school, high school and university. She won a full funded scholarship to attend university, Carleton in Ottawa. She studied journalism and she works for the CBC television network in Montreal, in their newsroom. I couldn't be more proud.