Before There Was Going Green There Was Going To El Mandado!

By my new job, I just noticed, there are a lot of people “going green.”  You know, asking for paper instead of plastic, bringing their own grocery bags to the grocery store so they won’t have to use plastic bags and create more waste in the environment.  Ya saben, shoppers who are very conscientious.  I know because I’ve also been trying to be healthier in my own way too.  Instead of eating a heavy lunch, over the last couple of weeks I have been opting for fresh salads instead.

Which reminds me… there’s a funny story there too.

You know those machines where you weigh your own salad and print out your own price tag?  Well, the first time I went to use it me quede allí parado picandole a todos los botones until the damn thing finally printed something.  It was so confusing!  And to make matters worse, it wasn’t like I could stand there and ask someone for help.  I would have looked like a complete idiot.  And bueno, you all know I’ve got my pride!  Anyway, you’ll be glad to know I have since mastered how to measure and price my own salad.

That’s progress razita, I’m telling you!

The point is, as the lady in front of me pulled out two cloth bags – one marked with a major brand’s logo, the other with a message explaining how she was “going green to save the environment” – I couldn’t help but to remember how in Mexico everyone always brought their own shopping bags to the pueblo.  We had to.  There was no other way to carry around our groceries from the plazita with the meat market to the fonda with the fruits and vegetables, and then around the corner to the town square where we could get a couple of tacos and a coke before jumping back on the back of the camioneta that had brought us all the way into town from the rancho.  It was usually time to make the winding road back through the cerros by the time we made it back to the truck.  

In those days it would take about an hour to make the trip there and another hour to make the trip back.

We weren’t going green back then so much as we were just trying to be practical.

Which made me come up with the title for this post: Before There Was Going Green There Was Going To El Mandado!

I thought it was clever anyway 🙂