Penna Dexter

With a climate change confab taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, I thought I’d share the response of a woman, in perhaps her 60’s or 70’s, to a young grocery clerk who suggested that next time she bring her own reusable grocery bag because “plastic bags are not good for the environment.” When the woman apologized, the clerk pointed out that “your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.” Well, green has become a “thing” since that lady’s childhood. But she listed for the clerk some “green” things we all used to do to save money and avoid waste. “Back then,” she said, “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.” She explained that people reused brown paper grocery bags not only for garbage, but to cover our schoolbooks. “Back then,” the lady said, “we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line…wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days.” And, she remembered, people had only one TV in the house, not one in every room. “Back then,” she said, “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.” In fact, she said, “We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.” People walked to the grocery store if it was close. Kids walked or rode their bikes to school and to activities, “instead of turning their mom into a 24-hour taxi service.” Oh, but the climate elites in Glasgow have more grandiose —and expensive — plans in mind for “saving” the planet.