ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

The Green Thing

The times are really changing they say we all have to do our share
the environment is breaking down and we’re polluting all the air.
We just can’t keep using up resources we must recycle or we’ll perish
the future generations will not get to see the world we cherish.

It’s all our fault the young one’s say cause we did not have a clue
the older generation back in their day never knew just what to do.
If we had planned then for the future and things would now not be so bad
But we did not have the green thing back when I was just a lad.

But then I got to thinking were we the one’s to really blame
when you consider how we lived back then, their arguments quite lame.
Our milk and drinks came in glass bottles that we sent back to the store
they were refilled time and time again, they never needed to make more.

We had no lifts in every high rise building and escalators were so rare
we simply walked or used the stairs to get most everywhere.
We rode our bikes to school each day or walked along the track
no fancy car or four wheel drive to take us there and back.

We dried our cloths on the outside line not in some high powered dryer
our food we cooked on old wood stoves not in some fancy fryer.
Baby nappies that were made from cloth, nothing aside was cast
Clothes were mostly hand- me- downs with patches made to last.

We had a radio or small TV and not one with a massive screen
we swept the house with just a broom not some vacuum clean machine
When we had to mow the lawn we pushed a mower up and back
now they use a ride on mower that belongs on a racing track.

We replaced the blades in razors and had pens you put ink refills in
now when the pen runs out or blade get blunt they throw it in the bin.
We used newspapers for packing stuff not Styrofoam or bubble wrap.
Then when we needed to drink water it came straight from a tank or tap.

So no matter what the young ones think we really weren’t so bad
We weren't as wasteful as they say when I was still a little lad.
Because we recycled everything in those early days back when
we hardly wasted anything, we didn’t need the green thing then.

Bob Pacey ( c )

Not where I want it at the moment but here goes.

Well said, Bob.

All true Bob, but were the old days really as clean and green as we want to remember ?

I was reminded recently how formerly the streets of cities were so noisy with horse drawn traffic, not to mention horse dung, a source of tentanus. I can remember my father using Dieldrin and Chlordane as insecticides. And how about the steam trains which belched enormous amounts of sulphur laden smoke into the air. And we had leaded petrol, and asbestos fibro house cladding.

Nevertheless, there were some things in everyday use, as you pointed out, where we were less wasteful. I'm glad we don't have the old cut-throat razor to be sharpened on the strap, now that is just too environmentally friendly, no wonder facial hair was more widely displayed back when.

And you could go to the hardware shop and buy one bolt ! and three hinges for the door, not a packet of four !

Neville Briggs wrote: And you could go to the hardware shop and buy one bolt ! and three hinges for the door, not a packet of four !

Still can where I live. (City suburb) The local hardware stocks a big range of loose nuts and bolts, both in UNC and metric. They also have the most common hinge sizes in bulk boxes as well. You can buy 1 or 100, your choice. Hardware shops in the bush are the same.

Maybe we're behind the times over here.

G/day Bob,
I'm with you on this one mate mind you you must be only a wipper-snapper if you had TV as a kid.

As for the horse manure Neville mentioned, at least in those days it was safe to put it on the veggie garden. These days most of the same product - especially stable manure - is so full of antibiotics etc that it kills all the friendly microbes in the soil so nothing will grow.

And speaking of the steam engines any pollution they may have belched out pales into insignificance when compared to pollution from the thousands of trucks on every road today and they were were miles more fuel efficient, metal on metal is many times more efficient than rubber on tarmac.

Cheers Terry

We can't have been too bad I reckon. Still remember our first tv, Terry sat for hours watching the test screen ????

I always thought when you turned it off the picture would start where you finished watching it funny now a days it does.


Cheers Everyone and thanks for the comments.


Bob

I did my bit for recycling today - refurbished the axle on a boat trailer I bought a little while ago.
New bearings and seals, rust removed and cold galv undercoated. Good as new.

Got a boat trailer sitting in the back yard that could use just some of that tlc Henry.

The beer and rums on me if you could pop over next weekend Mate.


No Dave no airfares.


Bob