h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

1.
The first pair of stockings I ever had lasted a year.The companies soon found out how to make them last a much shorter time!!

2.
The yolkes of free-range fresh eggs were a deep yellow colour, and there was a ring of albumen around the yolk to show that they were really fresh.

3.
I think that my generation should really insist on re-cycling. After all, plastic never even existed when I was young

4.
Toys were made of material which actually decomposed. They did not last for ever.

5.........what else can you remember?
CME
AlsoRan80
Wednesday 9th September 2009 8.45 BST

Christiane, you can still get eggs like that. They're called "organic".

I remember when there was a milkman who would deliver bottles of milk to our door, and take away the empties that we had put out.

Here's an extra-organic egg. http://www.mahalo.com/crack-the-big-egg

Share and Enjoy

Our milkman still delivers 3 times a week. There used to be a brewery called Davenports in Birmingham that used to deliver bottled beer the same way, their slogan was "Beer at home means Davenports".

I remember larders with pieces of marble to keep meat cool before we got our first fridge.

I remember sitting in the sidecar of my dad's motorbike and sidecar. It was big enough for 2 adults (or in our case the 4 children) to sit in.

I remember bread and jam as a treat.

I remember having an old halfpenny to spend on sweets and being able to buy two.

I remember picking up soda bottles in the ditches along the road to buy candy and sodas with the deposit returns. THAT is a policy that shouldn't have gone away. Glass is infinitely more recyclable than plastic.

Hi boys!!

I am so sorry, but I have a strong aversion to things labelled "organic". I feel that if one is farming anything, it should de facto be done in a humane "natural" fashion. Hence I have always avoided anything labelled "organic" what-have-you.

I shall however try six eggs labelled "organic" and test them and if I am wrong I shall most definitely apologise and thank you all for putting me on the road to beautiful farm-fresh eggs of a lovely orange hue and with a nice circle of albumen round the yolk.!

What do you think about the stockings though?

Thank for your quick and apposite replies. I was feeling quite responsible for the wretched waste which we throw away all mixed up and messy and horrid.

A new handyman in the building was telling me that he has been living in France for the last ten years.

Apparently every single item of refuse from the house goes into an identifiable, separate bag or box, marked, Glass, paper,vegetable peelings, cardboard,tins, etc. etc. and all are collected oncd a week.I do not know how it is done.

Once a month old Fridges, and electrical goods are collected, and apparently about once every six months old furniture.

According to my informant, there are no rubbish "tips" in France.

No this is NOT my story, and I know full well how xenophobic I am. !!!


Do you think it can be true.?

The point of my story was that it is my generation that has benefitted/suffered from the wonderful new invention i.e. plastic, which is so spoiling and fouling our planet.

I therefore think that it is our generation who must work extra hard in attempting to restore the planet to the state it was when we were born.

'Tis all my friends. Thank you for all the good advice on eggs. !!

Did your respective links come from either Facebook or Twitter? I am afraid I have not been looking at those sites. !!





With many thanks

Christiane
AR80
Wednesday 9th september, 2009 15.15 BST

Thank you Vestie for that lovely memory.

CME
AR80

Dear Count Zero,

I really have explianed myself very badly.

that is the whole point of my story.

Plastic is NOT recyclable. Yet none of us ever thought, when we were introduced to this new marvellous compound - which, if I remember correctly, comes from the waste prouducts of the petrol industry, ever thought of what it would do the planet.

Well done on the lemonade bottles. !!

CME
AR80

You expressed yourself perfectly. I was just relating my personal memories of a recycling habit we had when I was young (a mere 35 years ago) that is no longer done. There are still some states that require deposits on glass bottles, but they are few and far between. Sad that glass recycling is the exception now rather than the rule. And with an area in the Pacific gyre as large as Texas filled with deadly floating plastic debris I shudder at our future.


CZ

Dear Count Zero,

What is the Pacific gyre?

I am horrified - all filled with horrid plastic. totally unrecyclable. Is there nothing we can do.

What would they have done with the waste from the petrol industry? Is plastic really made made from waste from the petrol industry?

Sincerely,

Christiane.
AR80

Wed. 9th september, 2009 3.55 BST

I remember climbing the fence to get the soda bottles from the factory where they were delivered to then taking them back to the shop to get the deposit back (lol) bread and dripping was a better treat than jam.

Remember, chewing the corners off the loafs of bread on the way back from the shop, carrying 28lb backs of coal back home or a gallon of esso blue...spending farthings

Christiane, I'm afraid this is truly horrifying.

Basically in the North Pacific is a pattern of currents that form a gigantic vortex or "gyre". Debris gets trapped by these currents. Most of this debris is plastics. Plastics never truly biodegrade, they just break down into smaller components. In much of this area there is 6 times more plastic than plankton. Global warming doesn't scare me as much as what we're doing to our oceans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch

Here's a link for the Pacific Gyre or vortex(es):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch

You're right about plastic, Christiane. The city of Leominster (Massachusetts) was called "Plastics City" because it pioneered a lot of plastic types. One of my great-great-uncles moved there from Canada, though he arrived long before the plastic revolution got underway.

Anyway, there are innovative new types of plastic under develooment that will biodegrade much faster than the kinds we have now. Some bacteria were bioengineered to turn garbage into plastic (80% of their tissues), which can be made into shopping bags or whatever, after which they will start decomposing about six months later.

Christiane, I think you misunderstand the word "organic". It means that traditional farming methods are used instead of chemical pesticides. Organic food is more expensive, because the farmers lose a certain amount of the crop which would have been saved by using chemicals, but organic food tastes far better because it hasn't been bred for quantity.

Oh Count Zero and Paul H,

It is even worse than I ever imagined.

I wonder what will become to our fantastic wonderful oceans. Huge mounds of non-biodegradable minute scraps of plastic.

Horrible. I recognise two currents in the south Aftlantic - the Benguela current and the Aguhlas current.

But even bioengineering little animals to be able to digest the plastic, which will then form goodness knows what. It gets even more horrific with each horrid invention.

I always try to buy things which are wrapped in cellophane. That is
not plastic is it? Should'nt we try do advertise the fact that cellophane is biogregradable whereas a plastic transparetnt cover is not?

It is like the genetically altered veggies. Yesterday I bought a red apple, It was so perfect it looked virtually unreal. I bought it to make all my visitors think about genetically modified veggies. Everyone wants perfectly straight fat carriots, perfectly round beautiful beetroot, and potatioes and swedes and turnips etc. etc

No one ever thinks about the consequences.

Oh well, big I probably shall not be around to see it, but I wish it was hot happening.

The motor car really brought in a onto planet when it was found to operate efficiently on gasoline. If only they had stuck to steam. !! h2g2 + researchers being the oxygenators. !!

Christiane
Ar80

Hello Christiane

I remember the day decimalisation came in 1969 and I was not happy about it and I still hanker for the old money.

I remember when spending two shillings on sweets was considered extravagant.

I remember by my first toy in 1965 and it was a toy dalek.

I remember being able to walk from Ashington to Newbiggin on Sea in Northumberland several ways and when there was a lot less traffic now as it is now as there is a motorway.

I remember the old style department stores and arcades and when shopping was pleasure.

I remember when the co-op food department store delivered our weekly shopping.

I remember the days when there was a grocers van that would stop at our houses and other houses in our area and when we bought our daily essentials.

I remember walking with my mother to the farm and buying a basket full of eggs. I also remember the smell of the farm and how much I disliked the smell.

I remember when the coal mines in Northumberland were open.

I remember when we had real seasons and there was snow three times a year and when there were good frosts which made my cheeks very pink.

Katrine

Christiane

I also remember picking up pop bottles discarded after being on a school trip in Northumbeland and picking them and going to the shop and being given money along with my own empty bottle. I made quite a bit of money that day.


Katrine

I remember shopping baskets and bags... that every woman would take to the shop, every time.
I remember mum shopping for food several times a week to ensure it was fresh.
I remember struggling with the early airtight sealed bags.
I remember pigs heads, and pigs trotters in all butchers shops.
I remember can openers that left a triangular hole so that you could drink and you had to put two holes in (either side of the top)to get any drink out.
I remember salt in blue paper that was screw wrapped that you had to look hard for in a packet of crisps.
I remember the "invention" of ready salted crisps!
I remember being able to write the year upside down in 1961 and it still saying the same year.

I remember when my mother dried laundry on the clothesline.
I remember when there were lots of frogs around every brook.