At the risk of being accused of "old-fartism," I offer the following which a Facebook friend posted. While I don't agree with the implicit and explicit denigration of the young in the post, it does serve as a reminder of certain advantages Western lifestyles of yore possessed.
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment. The woman apologized to the young girl 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."
The older lady said that she was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain:
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 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 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 blade in a r azor 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 in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the"green thing." 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?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person.
It's true, all of it, and it's been a thing for generations going back to the advent of the internal combustion engine. My parents, for example, were steeped in a similar message from my grandparents. My father was born on the kitchen table by the light of a coal oil lamp. Water, hand-pumped out of the well, was heated on a wood stove that also heated the small house. No electricity. No running water. No car to fetch a midwife. My grandfather did that duty. And - the important part - no one would have given it a second thought. That was normal for a lot of people.
ReplyDeleteIf you went further back, say three generations, there was an incredible stasis in society. No one dreamed of annual wage hikes. Prices were likewise stable. Your house fetched the same price when you sold it as it commanded when you bought it. People made do. They mended whatever they could from socks to livery. What you produced you often traded for other things you needed. Your taxes? There was no income tax in Canada and most other countries before 1917.
For all of those things, life without progress was hard and unforgiving. I recently looked this up so it's fresh in my mind. In 1900, male longevity in Canada averaged 42 years. In the US (some things don't change) if was 40 years. You might have had a bit of schooling, got married, bought some sort of house, had your kids, and then worked yourself to death until you were felled by some accident, condition or disease. That was your "normal" and no one took to the streets over it until the first progressive era began opening peoples' eyes to the hardship and inequality that needed to be tamed.
You and I arrived as the era of progress was nearing its zenith. Our grandparents and parents had built this terrific society. Then came the late 70s and the movement to halt progress and replace it with neoliberalism, the handiwork of Thatcher, Reagan and Mulroney. 40 years later, look where we've come. Inequality, precarity and an environment, once our greatest gift, that we've transformed into a truly existential threat.
I am convinced that we either bring the neoliberal era to an end or it will end us. We fancy ourselves as progressives and do the odd gestural thing but the restoration of progressive democracy will probably have to be fought for, a struggle, just as it was initially. I wish I thought we had the will to do that but I don't see that spark yet. I had hoped it might spring out of the Occupy Movement but that remains dormant. Growth - perpetual, exponential growth - remains the order of the day and will probably persist so long as the fruits of that growth continue to accrue to the entities and narrow segment of our population that have usurped our democracy.
As you said, Mound, people made do with what they had. While it is perhaps stretching it to suggest there was any conscious virtue in 'the old ways,' they at least offer a cogent reminder of not only how far we have come, but also how far we have declined regarding our stewardship of both the earth and one another.
DeleteThe creed of neoliberalism has been a destructive one, and the egocentric, selfish behaviour it encourages has been a boon to only select people.
And some of us 'old farts' still do dome of those things Lorne, perhaps not as many as we should but its hard to resist those 'modern conveniences' as we age eh!
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with modern conveniences, Rural, as long as they are used in wise moderation and with a certain humility.
Delete.. I mentioned this to Mound a ways back.. our milk arrived in bottles via a horse drawn wagon with blocks of Lake Simcoe ice blocks. The horse was Queenie.. she is my first memory, I believe. Everyone on our street in Moore Park had a cottage.. but us.. summer lasted forever, as did winter.. it was either Grey Cup or Stanley Cup. I was Johnny Bower and Tobin Rote all rolled up in a ball of energy 3' 2" ..
ReplyDeleteI was relocated to the new family farm.. near Orton, Ontario, population 80
The deer were my new friends, and the cattle, barn cats, rats.. and aged dogs that city fold gave us.. and in their last years were my friends and vicy versy. Barn cats (ferocious rat killers) went to the Hillsburg rabies clinic in empty burlap sacks - innoculation was 'by feel'.. I went to Erin District High before starting to grow in Grade 12. In Toronto I'd been 'educated' by nuns, priests, Christian Brothers and other crude thugs and psychos of no repute
I either profit from my opportunities.. having had no parenting aside from generous grandparents, aunts n an uncle.. or cry in my soup. Whine like Andrew Scheer, rant like Alex Jones, weep like Donald Trump, or scamlike Christie Clark..
I choose to read Fast Company - about exemplars
Indy blogs like yours, Norm's, Babel on the Bay, Mound, Sask Boy.. and you know who else I regard highly.. I tweet like a madman, starting at 4 ayem, write fiction set in Canada Eh.. have a wondrous son named Dylan who outshines me by far n away.. a beautitious bright fiancee who outshines me by far n away.. and we all go with 'cottage rules' re toilet flushing.. turn heat down before leaving to work, and pay for basic tv service & the internut.. We also have a wired dial phone.. the black thing, that works during power failures or our cel phones go down
My point.. oh, right .. Will people from foreign lands beat a path to Canada ? Duh .. ! We can drink our water, buy fresh vegetables year round?. Monarch butterflies and Swallowtail plus Mourning Cloak hang in our backyard.. Jays, Cardinals, Juncos, Doves flock here..
Moral of my story, Lorne.. we keep it simple round here.. its the field of opportunity. We work it every day .. we sample & benefit from its bounty daily. We have the provinces to the west & the east plus the Territories. We don't need the US of A under.. and I do mean 'under'.. Donald the Trump
That's a wondrous post .. truly enjoyed it .. !
Thanks for the rich set of memories and reflections, Sal. Like you, I remember horse-drawn milk delivery that ended, I believe, in 1961. I also remember the horse drawn carts that the scrap-pickers used to collect their wares. Seems like a lifetime ago.
DeleteLike you, we turn down the heat, still have a wired phone, aka.,a landline, and have basic cable. A life of relative frugality is something that comes naturally to us, and I think, without trying to sermonize too much, it keeps us grounded somewhat.