Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
General Topics => All things that have nothing to do with Turkey => Topic started by: KKOB on November 24, 2011, 18:48:21 PM
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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 day".
The 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, 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 over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
We walked upstairs, 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 nappies 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 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 pizza joint.
But isn't it sad that the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks 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 young knowall.
And remember: don't make old people mad. We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to wee us off!
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so true:D
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Scary but true.
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Well I and my colleagues in my business are doing our bit and I have a sticker on my car windscreen to prove it "Antiques are Green" http://www.antiquesaregreen.org/
;) 8)
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Brilliant KKOB! :D:D
Nicked and will be sharing!! :D:D
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That's OK Cheers; KKOB nicked it himself. I think its called recycling.
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Yeah, but remember that us old folks don't understand the 'Green Thing'.
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Yes true.The milkman had a horse drawn float,so did the ice cream vendor.We all watched to see which one pooped and ran out with our wee spades and buckets to scoop it up for the garden veg.
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I recall a TV scientist, I believe it was Heinz Wolff, reflecting on the difference between the post-war years and the 1980/1990s. I thought it very perceptive.
He said in a British household in the 1950s an averagely competent man would understand how most of home, garden, and motoring technology worked and have a pretty good chance of repairing it when it broke droke down. Your electicity circuit was protected by fuses that were thin strands of wire connected across a big ceramic holder and you switched off off your appliances, got the right size wire from the supply you kept in the fuse box, and re-stranded the fuse. Radios had valves inside and if one "blew" you went down to the shop and bought a replacement valve and fitted it yourself. Your car had parts that were mechanical and which you knew how to fit together. So you could take off the cylinder head, take out the valves, regrind them, put them back and then reset the timing. And so on. All these things I did and I am certainly no great DIY expert.
By the 1980/1990s most of our houses were filled with a technology that few of us could understand. Fuses had become locked in boxes to which we were forbidden access by our electricians. Radios had transistors and you wouldn't even attempt to replace unless an expert. Lifting the bonnet of your car disclosed a complete mystery unless you were a mechanic - soon you would be told you had broken down in the middle of your journey because of a "program error" whatever the hell that meant.
Heinz Wolff (it was him I think) theorized that this had completely changed the relationship between people (particularly men) and the technology with which they lived. We had moved, in our households, from a technology by which we were only partially surrounded and could generally understand, to a new era of alien technology, most of which most of us could not understand and certainly could not repair.
An interesting theory I think. From then on it would be take your machine to an expert (who most times will tell you to buy a new one) or throw it away yourself (and save paying the expert). Not very green.
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Ahhhhhhhhh..........The Good 'Ol Days eh ?
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be, is it ? ;)
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I miss the olds days:(
And whats happened to old fashioned respect? Why is it that when you phone:(a company for whatever reason (bills wrong, normal query,complaint) they ask if they can call you by your first name? I don't want to be live-long buddies of these people, I just want them to fix what I phoned about! Especially when they sound about 12 years old. I don't want to put them on my Christmas card list
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quote:
Originally posted by peecee
I miss the olds days:(
And whats happened to old fashioned respect? Why is it that when you phone:(a company for whatever reason (bills wrong, normal query,complaint) they ask if they can call you by your first name? I don't want to be live-long buddies of these people, I just want them to fix what I phoned about! Especially when they sound about 12 years old. I don't want to put them on my Christmas card list
Unfortunately the only people I come in contact with who want to call me by my first name are Indian call centres :(
They are desperate to keep the companies who transfered the work to them by British companies who were trying to cut costs and what they offered was a cheaper option. Many companies have now found out to their detriment 'You pay cheap, you get cheap! Customer service is what is wanted by people not somebody who only speaks off a card! :(:(:(
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quote:
Originally posted by peecee
I miss the olds days:(
they ask if they can call you by your first name?
Like it says in the anti-drugs campaign 'Just say NO!'
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Brilliant thread-recycled or not.
Reminds me of last Sunday evening when we mislaid the TV remote.Disaster.Normally flick through 50 odd channels evrey(how do you spell this) ad break . Up and down like a blue posteriered fly. In the end, an energetic workout.
Wasnt such a problem back in the days of two channels.
Is there a spell check on the format tool bar-Cant see it
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quote:
Originally posted by suehugh
Is there a spell check on the format tool bar-Cant see it
Are you sure this is the right thread? We didn't have spell checkers in the good old days. P.S. EVERY.
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quote:
Originally posted by Colwyn
quote:
Originally posted by suehugh
Is there a spell check on the format tool bar-Cant see it
Are you sure this is the right thread? We didn't have spell checkers in the good old days. P.S. EVERY.
Thanks Colwyn-sometimes when you type or say a word several times, it sounds or looks incorrect.
My spell checker was a dictionary in those days.