# Growing up in the US before 1975; We didn't have the green thing back then!



## Kathy Clark Author (Dec 18, 2012)

I don't know where this originated but it really got me thinking. How authentic and colorful are our books when describing the first 75 years of the 20th century in the US?


_Credit to the author whoever you are._

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to me the other day, that I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. I apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green
thing back in my earlier days."

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, those over say 40 or so, 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 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. 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 razor we replaced the razor blades in a 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.


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## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

I love it! You are speaking of my youth. In fact, you are speaking of my early married years...especially the diaper part.


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## AndreSanThomas (Jan 31, 2012)

I find that my kids (9 and 7) have a very hard time translating my childhood books.  For example, I once read them a little scholastic paperback about a little girl who saves the school house and the kids in it from a flood.  They're stranded with no adults, blah, blah, blah.  My kids are saying "Mommy, why doesn't she just call on her cell phone?  Can't anyone get a signal?"  Uh, yeah.  

Whereas I had no trouble translating my parents' childhood books as a child.  My experiences were much more in line with someone 50 years older than I am than they are with someone only 6 years younger (the generation and technology explosion tends to fall right in there).  My two different assistants (both 6 years younger) had never played a vinyl record, never changed the channel on a TV by hand (much less adjusted the antenna or watched a program with some snow in it), never dialed a rotary phone, never used a paper AAA road map...

I've noticed that several of the books I've bought recently for my children have been "updated" to include things like cell phones.  Sheila the Great no longer uses a mimeograph to write her camp newsletter, instead she uses the old fashioned Xerox machine... Still, those references seem shoe-horned in and don't really flow.  I think you'd have to revamp an entire book and in many cases, adjust the story to make the jump.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

You missed one:

When something broke, you fixed it. You didn't just toss it out and go buy a brand new one.

Having just recently witnessed our neighbourhood's "Spring Cleanup," I really can attest that we live in a throwaway society. We could've had a garage sale that weekend and made some money instead of paying for the big old dumpster they dragged in here (and then filled with patio furniture, barbecues, strollers, bikes, toddler toys, household furniture, tools, etc. etc.). 

Blah.

Rue


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Hmmmmm.

You guys grew up in a different universe than I did.  I was born in 1960, and while "the green thing" wasn't at all set in the culture, we sure DID do the green thing.  (Heck, we invented it. It just took a generation to figure out how to make it work.)  But we didn't do it by rote, and we didn't have as much of the science behind the little things. (If it was "natural" it was good -- which meant a lot of things we thought were good weren't so much.)

But the concept of green -- reduce reuse recycle, concern about gas mileage and global warming, etc. -- were all a big deal in the 1960s -- and the things we do now started back then.  AND... many of the ideas came from the 1930s and before.

The throwaway lifestyle started in the 1950's really.  Certainly it was going strong in the 60's.  (It was a post-war boom thing.)  But it also happened in the 1920's

The two main facts relevant here: what goes around comes around, and also the roots of anything we think is new tend to be a whole lot longer than we know

Camille


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

> Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to me the other day, that I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. I apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green
> thing back in my earlier days."
> 
> The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."


From what I can tell, the youth of today seem incapable of turning off a light bulb.

At least in my house.


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## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

daringnovelist said:


> Hmmmmm.
> 
> You guys grew up in a different universe than I did. I was born in 1960, and while "the green thing" wasn't at all set in the culture, we sure DID do the green thing.
> 
> But the concept of green -- reduce reuse recycle, concern about gas mileage and global warming, etc. -- were all a big deal in the 1960s -- thing.)


Global warming? Really? I clearly remember concerns in the early 70s about the coming of another ICE AGE!


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

Sapphire said:


> Global warming? Really? I clearly remember concerns in the early 70s about the coming of another ICE AGE!


Same here. I remember reading about schemes to paint the polar ice caps black in an effort to conserve heat.

Wasn't that the purpose of the first Earth Day? Stop global cooling?


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

swolf said:


> From what I can tell, the youth of today seem incapable of turning off a light bulb.
> 
> At least in my house.


I don't think that's a generational thing. Back in the 70s, my dad, the industrial engineer, figured out the cost of each light in the house and taped signs on all of them saying, "This costs $(whatever it was)/month. Turn it off! Those notes stayed on for months but they didn't stop our house from always being lit up like a Christmas tree.  I blame it on the fact that we were a big family and most of us liked to read.


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

I'd like to add a few things...

Credit cards didn't exist back then. If you didn't have the cash, you didn't buy it. 
Phones weren't disposable every two years. 
Most people had gardens. Even in the city.
You would can (in glass Ball jars) the extra, and reuse the jars from year to year.
Birthday parties for kids weren't big out do the Joneses affairs. 
Cakes were homemade, along with suntea and lemonade. 
Soda was a treat, not a way of life.
McDonald's kids' hamburger, french fry, and soda, weren't for kids, that _was_ the full size for adults.
You only paid for the rides you wanted to go on at Disney World. Remember E-tickets?
Push blade mowers, anyone? We owned one, and my brothers used it. No gas needed.
People still made their own clothes. My mom and I wore matching outfits, just like my friends and their mom's did.


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

Born 1949 -- the original post is spot on.

And yeah, in the late 60s/early 70s it was a new ice age that was going to wipe us all out.  I can dimly recall some tv special called "Will We Freeze in the Dark?"

Anyone remember hearing a parent or grandparent say "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without?"

Jeez, I feel old today...


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## MsTee (Jul 30, 2012)

Hmm, I don't think it's as far back as you'd think.

I was a kid in the 90's (does this date me?!) and I remember all of these things! 

How about this one? During elementary school days, they use to have this event where us kids will come down and clean our school. It taught us to take better care of our school equipment and it was a pretty fun activity because all of our friends were there. Now? I don't think my young cousins will be caught dead doing these things...


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

LisaGraceBooks said:


> Credit cards didn't exist back then. If you didn't have the cash, you didn't buy it.


Your first statement is true. Your second is false. Debt is a very old concept.


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Your first statement is true. Your second is false. Debt is a very old concept.


I'm sorry, I should have included a longer explanation. Stores accepted cash, checks, or you could buy at some places on store credit (which was stricter and harder to get than today's credit cards) or lay away. 
If you wanted to buy a car or a home, you went to a bank, savings & loan, or credit union.


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## NathanWrann (May 5, 2011)

The narrator does nothing but validate the store clerks original statement. All of that repurposing, and reusing, and conservation mentioned by the narrator (presumably a baby boomer (which is about 25-30 years older than a 40 year old) was all in place when the narrator was younger, but then the narrator's generation grew up and created the disposable goods and culture that has become a pox on the planet. Who does the narrator think was in charge in the 80's and 90's when things like plastic cups, and disposable pens and disposable bottles and putting a TV in every room, and gas lawn mowers, and gas weed whackers, and gas leaf blowers came of age? And what generation are the moms that became the 24 hour taxi service? 

There's another one of these ridiculously nostalgic stories out there about the current litigious society. It references drinking from the garden hose, and running around until the streetlights came on etc etc and about how nobody got sued. Well, guess who created the litigious society in the 80's and 90's? Guess who was creating the laws and loopholes in the 80's and 90's? It wasn't Gen X, we were all teenagers then. It wasn't Gen Y, they were pre-teens. It wasn't "The Greatest Generation". It was the baby boomers. 

My father always sends me nonsense like this and then I have to remind him that, yes, it was like that when he was a child. But then he, and the rest of his generation, grew up implemented the disposable culture and now they want to be nostalgic for the way things were before they ruined it. Bah.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

> "Who does the narrator think was in charge in the 80's and 90's when things like plastic cups, and disposable pens and disposable bottles and putting a TV in every room, and gas lawn mowers, and gas weed whackers, and gas leaf blowers came of age? "


And you're still taking orders from the Boomers? Using plastic cups, and disposable pens and disposable bottles and putting a TV in every room? Grow up.


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## NathanWrann (May 5, 2011)

Terrence OBrien said:


> And you're still taking orders from the Boomers? Using plastic cups, and disposable pens and disposable bottles and putting a TV in every room? Grow up.


No idea where you got that in the context of my post. But in the context of this message and the intention of those who forward it is revisionist history. The intended message is that they are guiltless and it's the snot nosed brats (that they created, mind you) that came after them that are at fault. The message of the story in the OP is "we did it that way when I was young so I'm not guilty, therefore, I don't need to buy into your "green thing" or feel any responsibility." And that's a load of crap.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

NathanWrann said:


> No idea where you got that in the context of my post. But in the context of this message and the intention of those who forward it is revisionist history. The intended message is that they are guiltless and it's the snot nosed brats (that they created, mind you) that came after them that are at fault. The message of the story in the OP is "we did it that way when I was young so I'm not guilty, therefore, I don't need to buy into your "green thing" or feel any responsibility." And that's a load of crap.


I got it from the whining in your post. Grow up and take charge of your own life.


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

I can't "make" anyone do anything. However, I have chosen to live in a smaller house, I shop first at thrift stores, and do work at "reduce, reuse, recycle" as a lifestyle. I don't get new cell phones every two years, I wait until mine dies. The last one survived for seven years. I think I'm on my fourth year with this one. We recycle batteries and old cell phones at our library. I buy used books there, too. We recycle old phone books (I wish they'd quit making them.) 
My daughter loves that song "I'm gonna pop some tags," because that's what we do.  My daughter's desk was salvaged from the side of the road, so was our outdoor metal couch.  I bought her bunkbed/futon on Craigslist. I got my paddleboat the same way.
I'm trying to instill in my daughter the same values I have. We live next to a wildlife refuge on the water and do our part to keep it clean by picking up the trash that we find. This morning I saw a coyote on my morning walk, and my hubby saw a loggerhead turtle just off our dock the day before. I want to have a clean thriving ecological system in my own backyard. If we each do what we can, we don't have to do the blame game. I'm interested in taking care of the resources in my little corner of the world. 

Thinking "green" is actually a luxury of an educated rich population. 
When you're in survival mode, you do what you can to survive and d*mn everything else. Third world countries that want to grow into first world ones go through industrial revolutions where being green is the least of their concerns.  Everything ebbs and flows, and that's just the way it is. I can't control air pollution in China, but I can control my own consumer habits. Personal responsibility. I work on staying in shape and eating right, hopefully this will mean needing less medical care later in life.

There are conspicuous consumers in every generation, and there are those who are trying to make a difference. C'est la vie.


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## AkBee (Aug 24, 2012)

NathanWrann said:


> The narrator does nothing but validate the store clerks original statement. All of that repurposing, and reusing, and conservation mentioned by the narrator (presumably a baby boomer (which is about 25-30 years older than a 40 year old) was all in place when the narrator was younger, but then the narrator's generation grew up and created the disposable goods and culture that has become a pox on the planet. Who does the narrator think was in charge in the 80's and 90's when things like plastic cups, and disposable pens and disposable bottles and putting a TV in every room, and gas lawn mowers, and gas weed whackers, and gas leaf blowers came of age? And what generation are the moms that became the 24 hour taxi service?
> 
> There's another one of these ridiculously nostalgic stories out there about the current litigious society. It references drinking from the garden hose, and running around until the streetlights came on etc etc and about how nobody got sued. Well, guess who created the litigious society in the 80's and 90's? Guess who was creating the laws and loopholes in the 80's and 90's? It wasn't Gen X, we were all teenagers then. It wasn't Gen Y, they were pre-teens. It wasn't "The Greatest Generation". It was the baby boomers.
> 
> My father always sends me nonsense like this and then I have to remind him that, yes, it was like that when he was a child. But then he, and the rest of his generation, grew up and now they want to be nostalgic for the way things were before they ruined it. Bah.


Exactly!


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## The 13th Doctor (May 31, 2012)

like MsTee, I also remembering these things growing up in the 80s/90s (Scotland).


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## NathanWrann (May 5, 2011)

Terrence OBrien said:


> I got it from the whining in your post. Grow up and take charge of your own life.


No idea what you're talking about. Your posts make no sense.


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## brendajcarlton (Sep 29, 2012)

I just can't help being snarky sometimes.  We were out to dinner one time with two ladies who spent the entire meal, besides turning their noses up at the food because they were sure it was not organic enough to suit them, talking about their elaborate food shopping strategies to always get the most organic everything.  When they ran out of steam, I said, "I just go out in the garden and pick it."

My way of life is not based on some new age philosophy.  It's descended from WWII victory gardens, and before that generations of Pennsylvania dutch frugal farmers and housewives that saw no sense in paying for anything you could do yourself.  Besides, you've never tasted fresh asparagus or corn or nearly any produce unless you've had it within the hour of being harvested.  It's a whole different vegetable.  I'm growing food on the same land in the same way it was done in the seventeenth century.  We generate compost by the truckload not the bucketload.  But now I'm cool again, since new books are being written about how getting your food locally reduces your carbon footprint. Some of these kids have no concept of history.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

NathanWrann said:


> No idea what you're talking about. Your posts make no sense.


I accept that you don't understand. You are the authority on that.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

O.K. folks.  Knock it off.  Don't want to have to lock the thread.


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## Tripp (May 28, 2009)

It seems to me that this is nothing new.  I am a baby boomer and remember that my generation thought that my parent's generation ruined the world for us.  The grocery store clerk is doing the same to our generation.   (Though I found her to be rude and condescending to what should be viewed as a valued customer). Remember the saying, "Don't trust anyone over thirty"? 

And we did have a form of environmental awareness back then.  Remember Lady Bird Johnson's make America beautiful program and the ecology movement in the 60's and 70's?

IMHO, things are neither better or worse right now.  Just different.  We have more electronics now, but they are more energy efficient.  Same thing for vehicles. Many products are packaged with less so there is less waste. Etc, etc, etc.

I will say that being "green" bothers me a little.  Maybe because it feels like a fad and will go away.  it may be semantics, but I prefer to say I am frugal and conservative.  I run the dishwasher and washing machine only when there is a full load.  I combine errands as much as possible.  I take the stairs if possible.  And I prefer the reusable bags over the store bags.  But I prefer the latter cause the plastic bags are getting really flimsy, not cause it is Eco friendly...but that is just me.


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

Tripp said:


> It seems to me that this is nothing new. I am a baby boomer and remember that my generation thought that my parent's generation ruined the world for us. The grocery store clerk is doing the same to our generation.  (Though I found her to be rude and condescending to what should be viewed as a valued customer). Remember the saying, "Don't trust anyone over thirty"?


I agree that the cashier portrayed in the story is rude and condescending, but so is the entire story. I am SO tired of these rants about which generation is better than the other. Like you say, things are neither better or worse, but just different. We could go back and forth forever about which generation is the greediest, laziest, rudest, or most wasteful, but they're all generalizations and totally unproductive.


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## Jane917 (Dec 29, 2009)

LisaGraceBooks said:


> I'd like to add a few things...
> 
> Credit cards didn't exist back then. If you didn't have the cash, you didn't buy it.
> Phones weren't disposable every two years.
> ...


Oh yes, I remember the E Tickets at Disneyland. Also, we always walked to school....no matter how far. There were no school buses. We had a push mower and edger. No dishwasher (except us kids). We had a washing machine, but no dryer. It helped that we lived in San Diego, but all the clothes went on the clothes line, which became great support to play in tents (made of blankets) when there were no clothes on the line.


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## Book Master (May 3, 2013)

Back when we were kids, we used a wire coat hanger for a television antenna because that's all we had. It worked great too for the 3 channels that we had...........ha!
What was an air conditioner? It was a wet towel placed across the back of a fan or just a window fan! It was just as hot then as it is today.
We would go outside and play ball with a rolled up piece of tin foil and an old broom stick for the bat. I remember we could play all day long or until the wadded up tinfoil finally broke into pieces.
A coke was a nickel. You could get penny candy! 
Remember, we would go to the picture show on Saturday, watch two movies and drink cokes, eat pop corn and candy all day long for pocket change.

If I had the choice between now and then, take me back to then because that was the best of days! ! ! ! ! !
Society has lost something from those days that will never be back! 
Maybe that is why so many today are depressed, mentally sick, physically sick, broke and giving up all hope!
I don't care what anyone today could possibly say, "Those were the best and better of times!"


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