General Chat

Yes, they had the Green Thing in past years, they just didn't know they had it as it was the way of life.


I know WW2 had an effect on people's lives because of all the shortages and rationings which had to be endured. Even to the end of her life in 2001, my mother hated waste in any form and carefully folded paper bags to use again.


My grandparents were given a 'fridge in the late 1950's when they were both well over 70. It was a present from their son and his wife. However, when they had lived in Canada in the early 1930's, they had had a 'fridge, an oven set at waist height and many other modcons of the time. It must have been quite a shock to come back to the 'old country' again!


I do wonder what our grandchildren will think when they look back to 2011 and compare our way of life to theirs - hopefully they will smile gently and remember us with love.


And so times move on and change.....and modify.....and adapt.





:-D Cx

Quite frankly, if anyone told me I should bring my own bag (which I usually do), I would explain that this was a spur of the moment buy, and if they didn't want my custom, I would be more than happy to go somewhere where the staff weren't so patronising!! :-(

However, a good thread - especially for those ignorant of life without 'instant' things.

I'm still astounded that they could make a TV programme (a few years back) about a family forced to live without their car for a month!!!
I've never had a car - and amazingly, I can cope - even with 3 cats and the amount of cat food that involves lugging home on the bus!!!

I THOUGHT IT WAS GOOD
MADE ME THINK

In some ways they did have the green thing back then... we did not have supermarkets... my mother went up the road with her shopping bag and a basket... purchased a few groceries at a time and they went straight into her shopping basket.. We did not have a fridge so meat was bought quite regularly as well. It was kept in the safe after being cooked. But I remember when the raw meat had gone a bit "orf" and my dad just soaked it in vinegar, rinsed it and cooked it and it was fine.

I guess we are a little bit of both, I carried on a lot of the traditional economic ways but unlike my mother I did not spend all day Monday doing the washing in a copper and then turning the handle of the ringer and sending the washing into tub one to rinse it and then in the second tub of blue bagged water. I have always had an automatic washing machine.

What Cyns put up was tongue in cheek humour and was neither getting at one generation or the other. It was light hearted banter, not to be taken seriously. The younger generation will be the older generation one day and there will be some more things for the newer generation to laugh about.
Occupations change and times change and we go with the flow and technology, and enjoy what we like and ignore what we don't.

Persie :-)

Don't worry so am I Dizzi, and I also hang washing on line, reuse all my bags, sort tins, plastic and paper, turn off lights. etc. etc.

Carol

Young at heart tho Dizzi, aintcha?

OMG....I'M A PENSIONER

SOB,,



I'M AN OLDER GENERATION

Don't take it to heart Chrissiex, it was just an interesting read and not meant for dissection...........honestly ;-)


Cx

I' m sorry that I didn" t read it that way ....


The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."

and then it went on to say all the 'green' things the older generation did


I read it as a criticism of the younger generation for criticising the older generation

I think that clerk is right , the former generation _is_ the one that got all the modcons and started wasting things as soon as they could afford to, that really did not care enough.

the younger generation can be just as bad with all its discarded mobiles and batteries and such

but the older generation really did start it :-)


I am in between but closer to the younger generation I guess so I don' t like to see them criticised for things they didn' t start .....

I was sent this by a friend and thought it was interesting and it made me smile. I hoped it would make others smile too.


It isn't meant to be either fair or unfair and there are no points to be scored...........I think it is meant to help people remember what life use to be like.


A high proportion of the OAPs who had no choice but to be 'green', never lived to see colour tv never mind the fantastic things available now.


Charity shops are booming and I still hang my washing out to dry, pack things with newspaper and would willingly give my scraps to pigs if it were allowed.


Cx
:-D

I HAD AN AUNT WHO HAD NO CHOICE ABOUT GROWING ALL HER OWN FOOD AND USING EVERTHING NO RUBISH BINS FOR HER 50 YEARS PLUS AGO LEFT WITH THREE CHILDREN AND LITTLE MONEY HER MOTTO WAS
ONLY EDIBLES GROW IN MY GARDEN EVEN FLOWERS,NO PETS EXCEPT FOR THE CAT THAT WAS TO CATCH THE RATS,PLENTY OF RABBITS FOR THE STEW POT CHICKENS FOR THE EGGS OR DINNER HER SHED WAS A MASSIVE HESSIAN BAG STORE FULL OF VEGTABLES TO LAST A YEAR SHE BOUGHT WOOLIES FROM JUMBLE SALES AND RE KNITTED WITH THEM,(THATS WHERE I LEARNT HOW MANY KIDS JUMPERS YOU COULD KNIT FROM ONE ADULT JUMPER)SHE MADE PAPER LOGGS FROM NEIBOURS PAPERS THEY GAVE HER,HER ONLY PLEASURE AN OUNCEOF OLD HOLBOURN A WEEK.

MY AUNTY WITH THE CHICKENS AS MY KIDS CALLED HER WORKED HARD ALL HER LIFE NEVER RELYED ON ANYONE TO DO JOBS FOR HER IF SHECOULDNT DO IT HERSELF ITDIDNT GET DONE,SHE WAS A MARVALOUS LADY

this is not the first time I have seen this and I think it is so unfair to younger people ...........

who were the ones who got the clothes washers and driers and fridge-freezers and big cars and mixers and blenders and all the other modcons as soon as they could ?

The OAPs who were 'green' when they had no other choice did, that is who.

do those same people use wadded up newspapers to pack things today and hang their clothes to dry and mix by hand and feed their scraps to the pigs ? do they wear hand-me-down clothing now ?

I think they don" t

just like too many people , them included , keep using plastic bags when they must know how bad that is.And I think that is certainly part of the problem today, isn' t it?

I don' t think you score points for being 'green' when it was out of necessity, I think it is when it takes effort and maybe inconvenience that you score poitns .

Thanks for your comments.

I just thought this was so interesting because we hear so much about recycling these days......whereas in earlier days, they seemed to do it as a matter of course.


Why do we need to eat 'straight' carrots only for heaven's sake?


And I certainly don't want to return to the days of the outside loo.....can only just remember them fortunately ;-)


Cx

I am going to have a go at hawthorn jelly since I have seen it in that book.

I have that book and its good, lots of recipes that I remember eating as a child, and some I still use. I have said this often, my generation were brought up recycling, no charity shops then, we remade things to last a bit longer.

A friend bought me a book called 'We'll Eat Again' by Margeurite Patten.

It is about wartime cooking, Woolton Pie is in there. Simple,basic,tasty food. Part of the philosophy was not to throw anything away.

I think people became very wasteful as a reaction against wartime austerity but there are some pretty pedantic laws that the British do follow to the letter which do not make much sense.

My personal bete noir is pigswill. Something to do with infection control I think but it does mean a lot of good food goes to waste and pigs are fed on processed food.

Why don't bottles go back any more?

The cottage I grew up in had an outside lavatory with a pit down the garden to rot the contents in until it could be used on the garden.We did have lovely veg but I probably could cope with not returning to that method of recycling.

Oh so true Cynthia. Those were the days when food tasted so much better, not wrapped in two ton of plastic and polystyrene. Remember when fruit and veg. were random sizes, not cloned, to fit neatly into certain size packaging, which is then thrown away.

Carol

Very good!

Being Green is the new thing, or is it?

In the queue at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the Green Thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right, that generation didn't have the Green Thing in its day.

Back then, they returned their 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 they didn't have the Green Thing back in that customer's day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn't have an escalator
in every store and office building.

They walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks.

But she was right. They didn't have the Green Thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby's nappies because they didn't have the
throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling
machine burning up 220 volts - wind and solar power really did dry the clothes.

Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that old lady is right; they didn't have the Green Thing back in her day.

Back then, they 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, not a screen the size of the Yorkshire.

In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn't have electric machines to do everything for you.

When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power.

They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; they didn't have the Green Thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water.

They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But they didn't have the Green Thing back then.

Back then, people took the tram or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or went on the bus instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service.

They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they 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 the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks
were just because they didn't have the Green Thing back then?





:-D Cx