Are you old enough.............

to remember this? A blast from the past for me.


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..............."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. "................

And another key thing to consider, when a family reuses its own stuff, you aren't even paying for the petrol to take it to a recycling center.

My favorite example, the jelly jars that we turned into drinking glasses.

Of course, part of the conservation effort was who had money back then? Canning and then then re-using the Ball jars.

My Dad got us a "color"/black & white TV. Evrybody in our neihborhhod came over to watch the watch COLOR show, Walt Disney's wonderful world of color, we couldn't believe it, it was wonderful, o it had a 10" or 12" screen, (sorry can't remember) which then was HUGE.
Dad called us inside from playing in the pool, to watch Neil Armstrong step on the Moon. There the 4 of us where in beach towels, teeth chachering (sp?), dipping on the den floor, with all out jaws hitting the floor.

Thanks for the memories!

I remember when we buried our dead in the backyard. Saved land from cemeteries or fuel, heat and ash from cremations and it renewed the soil behind the house. We had the best zucchini crop the year after we buried my grandmother. The only family member we didn't bury back there was my dad. He was so full of booze we figured that it would kill everything. I can't remember what we did with him?

The Liberals GOP Twin wrote: I remember when we buried our dead in the backyard. Saved land from cemeteries or fuel, heat and ash from cremations and it renewed the soil behind the house. We had the best zucchini crop the year after we buried my grandmother. The only family member we didn't bury back there was my dad. He was so full of booze we figured that it would kill everything. I can't remember what we did with him?

Probably cremated him, would burn well. Wouldn't need lighter fluid.

As a kid I had the freedom to jump on my bike (told my mom I'd be back before dark), then ride two miles down Broadway to Cinderella City where I'd meet some pals to either hang out there or go fishing in the Platte. I always had a dollar in my pocket for an emergency.

When we moved to Conifer in 69, we kids prefered to ride in the back of our pickup, we hitch hiked or rode our dirtbikes through Maxwell Falls to fish at Evergreen Lake.

We had freedom...I wish my kids had the same.

We lived next to the town park until I was 14...in the summer we were always out there playing. Sometimes we stayed out there until well after dark playing chase, hide n go seek or whatever. We also rode our bikes all over town, I have several scars on my elbows and knees where I tried to make the corner on a dirt road and wiped out. We were outside, even in the winter...no watching TV all the time...no playing video games all the time, no playing computer games all the time. When mom said to go out and play, we did.

If we wanted to go across the pasture next to our house and go fishing in the ponds out yonder, we did that. We would go down to the creek and "swim" and play. Yeah, it was fun and seemed easier.

We also "recycled" cardboard...the refrigerator boxes??? We'd build a fort or roll around in them until they were shredded.

I wish my kids had experienced even a little of what I did growing up.

BB gun fights.
Carried shotguns in your vehicle to school so you could hunt birds afterwards with the principle and coach.
went camping for days without parents.

And now kids stay inside in the basement playing video games all day. Safe, except for the obesity and heart disease.

When my sister and I were "old enough" (I know we were pretty young) our parents let us walk or bike the 3 blocks it was to the corner drug store for a homemade lemon or limeade. Of course, our drinks were consumed in REAL glasses that had to actually be hand washed! Yep, miss those goof 'ole days......