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 school books.  This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our  use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling. Then we were able to personalize our books. 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 throw-away 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 2,000 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?