CLEAN UP! CLEAN UP!

 

  When my oldest daughter, Jennifer was a teacher, she used to sing a little song. "Clean up, Clean up... I don't know the rest of the words, if there were any others. She used to sing it to the class and around her house to her kids too I believe.  That song was running through my mind a couple days ago when I went out into the neighborhood with my long handled grabber and a trash bag.

The day was really nice; sunny and about fifty degrees, which may sound chilly to those farther south, but it was comfortable for me. I just donned a jacket and got busy. My biggest fear was that someone would be watching me as they drove by and would run into me while I walked along the side of the road picking up other peoples trash. There is a city wide clean up in May, but I didn't want to have to see trash all over the ground until the snow falls. I like the idea of driving by and not having to see a bunch of plastic fast food cups, paper, booze bottles and all other manner of junk on the ground. I think if the area is kept clean, there is less chance that people will throw their trash out the window. Of course there are always the slobs who could care less, and I don't doubt that a lot of the trash that ends up on the ground is from young people who haven't been taught any respect for the environment. I base that on the trash that I see laying around. This past spring my granddaughter and I picked up over 270 one shot bottles of booze  in about a two block area, both sides of the road. The other day the amount was much less, about thirty or forty, but still too many.

In the short time I've been cleaning up the roadside, I've found a few items that have value. I picked up 12 foot tape measure, a handle for throwing balls for a dog, a number of balls, including a golf ball and several tennis balls, and my most recent find,  a party size container of Fireball liquor. I was walking along the grass and weeds picking up plastic, cigarette butts, umpteen grape flavored Mike's Hard Lemonade bottles, which collectively are really heavy, and assorted other junk when I ran across the bucket. I didn't realize until I picked it up that it wasn't empty. When I got home I looked inside and found fifteen one shot bottles of Fireball. I've never tried it, but apparently it's whiskey with a strong cinnamon flavor. I knew that my neighbor across the street liked that, so I offered it to her. She told me to hang on to it so I could serve it when she came over. She recommended that I put it in the freezer as it supposedly tastes better if it's really cold.  That very night her and her husband came over for a visit and she had two in a glass of ice. I can only imagine that the kids who tossed the bucket had big plans to come at a later date and finish what they started. Sorry kids, if you snooze you lose. Beware the Picker - you little twerps.