Green deja vu

All this “trendy” green/environmental stuff going on these days is giving me a serious case of deja vu. In fact there are a lot of things that I was doing back home that have only recently (in the last 5-7 years or so) become more mainstream in the US (debit card purchases come to mind).

Safeway was where I did most of my grocery shopping when I was living on my own back home. It was conveniently located between school and my apartment within easy walking distance. I carried my groceries home white nylon fabric bags with big red Safeway logos on them and only got the plastic bags whenever I had too many groceries or forgot to bring my bags. Got away from reusable bags when I moved to the US because I just got funny looks from the cashiers when I gave them my bags. Now I’m back to using them again and not getting funny looks anymore.

My early childhood was spent in the 70s, and throughout elementary school conservation was the big message. All the light switches had stickers on them reminding people to turn out the lights to save electricity. Walk to save gas, take the stairs, reuse things, etc. Then the 80s came around and most everybody seemed to throw it all out the window and continued to do so in the 90s and well into 2000. Now things seem to have come full circle and conservation is being encouraged again.

Funny how things always seem to repeating themselves.