The Green Thing

The Green Thing


In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."   The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana .

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us.

When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.
We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.

We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Still the Best Policy

I learned my first big lesson about honesty in elementary school.  It was my turn to be the class milk monitor, a big deal to an eight-year-old even though the only duty was to hand out cartons of milk after the students paid their nickel to the teacher.

Things were going really well, until the teacher had to step away from the table for a minute, and I happened to glance at that pile of nickels.  The temptation overwhelmed me, and all of my strict upbringing fled as I lost control of my own hand.  I saw that no one was looking, and reached into that pile.  I wore a dress with pockets that day.

When my duties were done, I went into the cafeteria and got in line.  I reached into my pocket and my hand closed around those nickels.  There couldn't have been more than five or six nickels, but they felt so heavy.  My stomach lurched, my palms were sweaty, my heart was pounding, and I could swear that those nickels were on fire.  Being a preacher's granddaughter didn't help at this point; I was sure I was going to hell in that moment.  Well, maybe being a preacher's granddaughter did help, because it only took about two minutes for me to leave the line and return the nickels to the teacher.  She never did turn me in.

I've never stolen anything else from that day on, including when a preoccupied cashier gives me back too much change.  Doesn't matter if it's only a penny, I give it back, and the cashier always seems surprised.  People just don't seem to expect honesty and integrity anymore; a sad fact which brings me to the reason for dredging up this poignant memory.

The other night I was at the grocery store, and noticed that my favorite brand of butter was on sale.  With the cost of butter these days, I wait for these sales and purchase extra to freeze.  So, I put 10 pounds of butter in the cart and went through checkout.  I didn't want to take out all 10 packages, so I told the cashier that I had 10 in the cart, and gave her one to scan.  I hadn't been keeping track of the total in my head as I shopped, so I paid my $98 without question and drove home.

I always try to go over the receipt as I'm putting things away, and while doing this I found she had only charged me for one pound of butter.  I did a quick calculation and realized I had about $35 of butter that hadn't been paid for.  Now, I'm not gonna lie to you...with the cost of groceries these days, the temptation was great to just forget about it.  No one would have been the wiser.

It was about at that moment when the weight of those nickels pressed down on me.  I knew I could never eat a pat of that butter without feeling the sweaty palm, stomach-lurching guilt that was now ingrained into my conscience.  Of course, I jumped back in the car and drove back to the store.

I explained the mistake to the manager, and she walked with me over to the cashier who had checked me out.  I explained again what had happened, and that I wanted to pay for the butter.  One manager, two cashiers, and six people in line looked at me like I was crazy.  The cashier didn't know what to say.  They thanked me profusely, and said nothing like this had ever happened.  They were stunned.  I was stunned that they were stunned.

I slept well that night.

It never ceases to amaze me at times like this how the world has become so skewed, that a simple act of honesty could be so infrequent and unexpected as to shock people when they encounter it.  And I never cease to be thankful for the life lesson of an eight-year-old little girl who somehow figured out the truth of the old adage, 'Honesty is the best Policy', and for the upbringing that got me there.

Thanks Mom...Thanks Dad...Thanks Grandpa.  You'll be happy to know that I turned out pretty well.

The Site Formerly Known as Bonanzle

One of the benefits of being a card-carrying insomniac is that I tend to find out things that happen in the middle of the night sooner than a lot of people.  Conversely, if something happens in the morning, I tend to be the last one to know.  Late last night was definitely one of the perks, when I went to the discussion boards on bonanzle.com and found that the site's name had been changed along with a spiffy site re-design.  We will now be known as BONANZA.

We did get a mysterious 'heads-up' by Mr. Bill a day or two ago about a big announcement coming any day now, and a major press release that would follow.  So it wasn't any surprise that there was a big announcement. But no one was prepared for the magnitude of the change that was coming.  This is huge.  This is total re-branding of a site that's two years old.  This is going to be a lot of work.

Now the big question is how do I 'undo' over a year of my own branding...dropping backlinks everywhere all over the internet, email signatures, social media site profiles, blogs, networks, groups, advertising...it's mind-boggling the work that will be involved.  While we all work at chipping away at that project, the old URLs for the site and our booths will redirect to bonanza.com, so that's a relief.  But geez, I just got my Silkworm craft booth banner, two car door magnets, and biz cards that are all obsolete now.  Crossing my fingers that one of those free Vista Print emails is in my inbox tomorrow!

The benefit of the name change is obvious.  Bonanza is a common word, a real word.  Bonanzle was just too hard to get across to the folks.  Spelling it correctly was a challenge for many.  It was hard to remember.   Eventually this will be a very good thing.

Here's a link to, and an excerpt from, the announcement by Bill Harding, the big Kahuna at 'the site formerly known as Bonanzle'.  (Hey!  I wonder if Prince is using that pretty symbol now that he's done being 'the artist formerly known as Prince'?  Maybe we can have it as our new logo?!)


A Source of Great Wealth - A Spectacular Windfall 


>>>>>"Today is a big day in Bonanza history.  Bonanza?  Don’t you mean Bonanzle?  Actually, no. Today we changed our name!   Check out the new URL at www.bonanza.com and keep an eye out tomorrow morning for the press release on the newly designed site!
On one hand this is a big deal.  We changed our name!  That’s huge!  On the other hand we really just swapped a vowel and dropped a consonant.  Both are true. Why change the name after two years?  We’re one of the fastest growing marketplaces already – why mess with a good thing?  While I’m proud of our growth, I’m also far from satisfied.  I want Bonanzle (wait, Bonanza – this is going to take a while) to be a household name.  Two years in and my grandparents still get the name of the company wrong (hi grandma! hi grandpa!); pretty much everyone does.  And guess where they settle after giving up?  You guessed it.

So, when Bonanza became available we had to go for it.  First, it’s a real name.  When I was running the company out of my apartment on a shoestring I could only hope to have a real name.  Second, it’s clearly what I based the company name off of in the first place.  I can’t think of a better way to describe the social sales experience we’ve created than a ‘source of great and sudden wealth; a spectactular windfall’  Third, being the sort to rely on data, we even did some consumer recall testing on Mechanical Turk (tips hat to Amazon).  Guess which name is easier to recall after a one second flash of the company name?  It wasn't even close.

Most of all I want to provide more sales for our fantastic selling community.  And a name that customers can remember and spell will help...

...one more announcement.  We recently acquired 1000 Markets and are happy to welcome their merchants into the Bonanza family.  Many of you are likely familiar with their site already and may have items listed there.  They share a number of our values and know first-hand how hard it is to start a marketplace.  Please join me in welcoming them to the fold.  1000 Markets items will soon be listed on the site and their URL will redirect to our own."<<<<<

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Well, that's it then.  A lot of changes coming during the holiday season, they say.  Here's hoping that all will transition smoothly during the biggest sales season of the year.  No glitches, please.


And now, goodbye Bonanzle...hello BONANZA.

Silk