Antique & Classic Cars Blog
What Happens Outside the Car, Happens Inside
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008Thirty-five years ago, manufacturers started switching from heavy high-horsepower cars to smaller, more efficient vehicles–and then switched right back. Conservation is not this country’s driving concern, so to speak. Some neighbors of a friend bought two new coupes in the name of being greener. They continue, however, to warm them up for ten minutes each morning before driving away. If fuel efficiency is measured in miles per gallon, guess if you drive no miles, you use no gas.
Waste is everywhere, though, not just at the wheel. Ever try to spare the landfills a bag or two at a store? Why, when you buy only one item–which comes in a bag–do they try to give you another bag to carry it in?
I often pluck the item back out and say, “I don’t need a bag.” Ever do this? Know what happens? The clerk throws out the bag!
That’s what the clerk did yesterday at a local retailer when I pulled the single item he had put in its own bag–three boxes of kleenex shrinkwrapped together–and put them with a couple other boxes also in their own bag. Even though I had more items he was going to pack up, he threw out that bag and took a new one. Amazing.
He continued to pack one or two things per bag as I consolidated them, oblivious to efficiency, conservation, etc. For an instant I was surprised at how little it all mattered to him–then I realized, hey, at least he’s not putting wheels on at a tire store.
“You tighten the lugs on that Vette?”
“Uh….”
4 Responses to "What Happens Outside the Car, Happens Inside"
Possibly he noticed you were a man of advanced years and wanted to make the bags lighter…. cause anyone knows 10 light bags are easier to carry than 3 heavy ones…. duh.
I have a similar gas guzzling neighbor that works for our township. It’s not enough that the our tax dollars afford him a study p/up to drive… he warms and cools it with the seasons so as not to have a moment of personal discomfort… all on the township gas card I’m guessing. Only concern this man has for conserving fuel is whether his butt will hit hot or cold vinyl.
Our society has become SO wasteful. We do it without even thinking about it.
To be fair, there have been times at various stored in my area where if I’m only buying one or two things, the clerk has asked if I need a bag. I always decline with a cheery “Naw, let’s save a tree or two!” Just like puppies, you gotta reinforce positive behavior! In other cases, I grab what I’m buying while they’re finishing up the register work and before they have a chance to bag it.
I do not understand why people can’t see that if we start conserving gas, paper, electricity, or whatever NOW while we don’t have to, we may be able to avoid being FORCED to conserve when we’ll have no choice in the matter.
We live on a city corner and there’s often various bits of trash in our yard or on the walk. When I’m out working on my car I pick this stuff up. My wife also gets a lot of it.
She does something else that I do now too–pick up trash that isn’t on our property. If there’s a cup or a box or a bag near our little intersection by Pepitos and Parkway and Turtle Bread, I pick it up and throw it away. It’s not like it looks any better off my property than on it. If everybody did that, there’d be nothing on the roads but our nice cars… as it should be–cycles and bikes are OK too.
Good for ya! Too bad like-minded folk are about .0000000000001% of the population.
I recently spent a week picking up cans from the ditches, from the edge of town all the way out to the airport. A few days later, I see new cans there. Slobs never cease to amaze me. I like to think a place is better for my having been there; a sentiment shared by… anyone?
Re: that county jerk: Autostarts are the WORST invention ever. If I didn’t have such a Libertarian streak, I’d lobby to outlaw them. The sheer quantity of idiots that abuse the warming up of engines is staggering. There is NOTHING in the way of education coming from the government, driving instructors, or even automobile manufacturers (beyond what they say in the owner’s manuals which, evidently, nobody has ever cracked open) but the need is GREAT. :/
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MotorMouth Kris Palmer, freelance auto writer and editor, blogs about vintage cars, the collectible auto scene and just about anything else that goes vroom.
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