I WAS in the queue at the checkouts the other day and a young cashier suggesting to me that I should bring my own plastic bags back and not use them as bin liners, as plastic is not good for the environment.

I apologised to the young girl and then sighed, saying: “My generation didn’t have this green thing back in my day.”

The young lady responded: “That’s the problem today, you folk don’t do enough to save the environment for future generations.”

I said: “Yes you’re right”.

Back then, we returned milk bottles and lemonade pop bottles to be used over and over again. Bread was wrapped in paper bags and not plastic from the maker’s shop.

Leftover wallpaper was used to personalise and cover our school books. We had our fish and chips wrapped in last week’s Keighley News.

Back then, mum washed the baby’s nappies because she didn’t have the throwaway kind. She dried clothes on the washing line as wind and solar power really did dry our clothes.

The kids got hand-me-downs form their brothers and sisters.

We only had one radio in the house - not a TV in every room. And if anyone did have a TV, it was a small screen not the size of a football pitch.

When mum cooked she blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have fancy gadgets. She used leftovers from the Sunday roast dinner to make a Bubble and Squeak for Monday’s tea.

Dad didn’t fire up an engine to burn petrol just to cut the lawn.

He used a push mower that ran on human power and exercised by working and did not need to go to the gym to run on electric treadmills.

We drank water from the tap when we were thirsty instead of buying plastic bottles.

People took the bus to work, we rode bikes to school instead of turning our parents into a taxi service.

Oh, and we only had one electrical socket in a room, not an entire bank to power our computers that receive a signal from a satellite in outer-space in order to find the nearest takeaway.

It’s so sad this generation laments how wasteful we older folks were: we don’t like being old in the first place, so it doesn’t take much to upset us.

Especially from a young lady who can’t add up without the cash register telling her how much!