We were green back then

[LouisianaJoe]

Being Green...

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 f
or 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 truly 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.

End of paste.

I remember watching Neil Armstrong step on the moon on our black and white TV that was in the only room in our house that had a window AC. I had a quart of Old Milwaukee in my hand at the time.

Joe

 

[peyton]

We drank from a water fountain that did not chill the water and had an electric cord plugged into the wall. No one thought it was unusual to walk a mile to school, the older kids led the way. Then years later it was our turn to be the sheperd. I do not remember us becoming a two car family until our family had all the kids in Junior High.

 

[Gunslinger808]

I remember, I've forgotten, but I will live to my fullest!

 

[jaykellogg]

We played Kick the Can until after dark.

I lived in a town (DuBoise, PA) and there were empty fields and woods nearby. We ran all over and explored. I rode my fat tire cruiser all over town. That bicycle was made up of a mixture of new and used parts. I had a paper route so I had a little disposible income. There was a bike dealer that offered to trade in my cruiser for a new fangled 3 speed "English bike" and let me make weekly payments, but I decided I did not want to go into debt, although I wanted that new bicycle badly. I never had a new bicycle until I was an adult. I cannot ever recall being driven to school. For a short time in seventh grade I could have ridden a bus, but my folks didn't want to pay extra for the bus. Then they got a call from the parents of a classmate who was going to be out of school for an extended period of time and I was allowed to ride the bus in her place. Shortly afterward, Dad got a promotion and the family moved to Clarion, PA. This was a smaller town and I walked to school or rode my bike. I can remember cleaning snow off the seat of my bike before I rode it home.

The family never had more than one car until I was old enough to drive.

 

[JaPes]

I'm with ya for most of it, except for the diaper & TV thing. I'm a Gen X-er and the advent of those things were right in my childhood.

Video games? Internet? Play Dates? When I was a kid and it was summer, we were outside all day long. I woke up, dressed, ate breakfast, and then started knocking on the neighbor's doors to see who wanted to play. We checked in for lunch, then out again. Day was over when our moms would all call us back in.

I remember playing guns with little cap revolvers. No neon orange tips or clear plastic.

 

[jaykellogg]

I remember playing guns with little cap revolvers. No neon orange tips or clear plastic.

The boy across the street had a Stevens tip up rifle that was given to him for a toy by his landlord. (Remember, we were in grade school). It is a darn good thing neither of us had any .22 ammo.

 

[TIMETRIPPER]

I was the snow blower. Cleared it with a shovel. Then mom would send me over to my grand parents house, a few blocks away, to clear their sidewalks too. Usually I would be hailed by more than one retiree while on the way and hired to clear their walks for for the princely sum of a quarter! Usually made a dollar or two on those trips back and forth to grandmas. In the summer I cut grass with a reel mower. Too often the lawn won so dad bought a small gas powered mower. What's this green thing the younger crowd's talking about anyway?
John

 

[OFT II]

I guess that I was about ten or eleven when we got our first TV. Before that we would sit around a cabinet type Philco radio listening to "Fibber McGee and Molly", "The Great Gildersleeve" and "Gunsmoke".

 

[oldafsp]

I often wonder how many thousands of dollars in baseball cards from the 50's I destroyed in the spokes of my Schwinn Typhoon...

It was a brand new 1961 model. Candy Apple Red, 26 inch with the Bendix 2 speed rear axle. Hand painted white pinstripes...Wow. My first new bike. My folks got tired of seeing me working on 2nd or 3rd hand bikes everyday just to get around on.

Of all my childhood memories, that day always comes back to mind.

 

[steveno]

don't even mention the baseball cards going down the tubes

 

[jaykellogg]

don't even mention the baseball cards going down the tubes

I never got into baseball cards. Dad wasn't a fan and we lived far away from any teams. I did for a while buy bubblegum with jet airplane cards in them. They were pictures of USAF or USN fighters with stats printed on them. This would have been in the mid '50s.

I hear the value of baseball cards has fallen in recent times.

 

[steveno]

prices for baseball cards may well have gone but I'm sure they are still a LOT higher than what I paid for them in the first place

 

[C.S.63]

One telephone in the house and it had a cord and rotary dial. Ya didn't get expelled from the sixth grade for carrying a pocket knife. Ya looked forwards to it snowing for a snow day from school so you could EARN some money for shoveling snow Only after your own walks and driveways where done and then ya still did the older neighbors for no charge (respect) Summer time was cutting grass. Home by the time the street lights came on. You where always mindful of things going on and there to help no free rides, neighbors putting up a fence you helped, new patio you helped leaves raked you helped pretty day outside go play and ya stayed out of trouble!

 

[jaykellogg]

Dad had a brass whistle he got in the Army. Mom would give three loud blasts to call us home.

 

[Alpo]

The whistle. My Daddy could whistle through his teeth, and you could hear it three blocks away. He whistled - we came. Time or two we'd be playing football in someone's yard, and we'd be lined up waiting for the snap. "Hut one, hut two" WHEEEET. And me and my brother would stand up and start running back to the house. Middle of the game. Didn't matter. We gotta go.

And this didn't impress me at the time, but it does now, thinking back on it. EVERYBODY understood. Nobody got upset. We could still play with 'em the next day. There were no hard feelings. "Their Daddy whistled. They gotta go home".

 

[labworm]

At the age of 12, I would go see the Boston Bruins play at the Boston Garden.

The game started at 7:30 PM and ended around 9:30 PM.
Cost me $1.00.

Always took the bus into Boston, cost $.05 plus a transfer to get onto the train.

Did all this at the age of 12 unescorted.

Food was purchased mostly daily and eaten, nothing laying around that would be thrown out later.

Paper bags, cardboard boxes and if you had the $, you may have owned a leather shopping bag.

Didn't need a key ring

There is a reason so many of us say "The Good Old Days"

 

[deralte]

Way back when - we had a crank telephone - after cranking you told the operator the number you wanted. If you didn't know the number all you had to do was give her the name. Don't remember any fat kids in school - we were always outside doing something. Between chores at home and playing we couldn't find any of those extra pounds. First new car was a 1957 Chevrolet convertible for $2500.

 

[jaykellogg]

OK, the memories are flooding back. We had a party line for a while. when the phone rang for you it was a special ring, but sometimes a nosy neighbor would listen in. I mowed grass for a while using a push reel mower. I remember having to shake the milk bottle to mix the cream back in. My Wife and actually had milk delivered up until the early 80s. We had a galvanized container with polystyrene foam insulation sitting on the fromt porch.

I also remember how much I loved Howder Doody Time when we got a TV. Also I liked to stay up and watch "The Untouchables" being interested in guns and old cars. Last, I remember how big a deal it was to get my Lionel Train set.

 

[Marshwheeling]

In our neighborhood, the bikes were either cruisers, mostly Schwinns, or English 3-speeds, mostly Raleighs, Dunelts or Robin Hoods (the last two were mostly for the girls, but not always). My dad had given me his 3-speed Hercules when he traded up to a Raleigh, which he rode to work, rain or shine, winter or summer (this was Minnesota), so my mom could have the car, a '54 Ford station wagon, during the day. The English bikes were faster, but the Schwinns were tougher, and survived the occasional collisions much better.

My Hercules was faster than all the Raleighs in the nneighborhood. In retrospect, I'd put it down to gearing. We rode our bikes all over town, sometimes all the way across town to Saint Paul, which was like a foreign country. These days I gear my bikes down; easier pedaling takes precedence over top speed.

For pocket money, I had a paper route, which never paid too well due to a high proportion of drunks and deadbeats. My friends with better routes got nice tips for Christmas. My customers gave socks and flashlight batteries. I cut lawns with a reel mower, shoveled snow, baby-sat, and bagged groceries at the corner store.

In the winter, we played hockey. There were rinks all over town, and every park had its own hockey teams. My local rink was on a narrow part of a city lake. We would get down on the ice right after school, and stayed there until the warming house closed at 10:00 p.m. On a nice night, there might be a hundred kids out on the ice, playing hockey or just skating under the lights. There were Zambonis, but not for our outdoor rinks. The Park Board would flood the rinks and plow after a big snow, but between times, we shoveled the rinks ourselves.

 

[labworm]

Marshwheeling, you and I led identical lives in different parts of the country.

But I shined shoes on the sidewalk in the city, did everything you did to make a buck.