Taking Out the Trash

My least favorite job.

I have often said that the only reason women get married is because men don’t mind taking out the trash and they come with tools. But wait, now there’s Home Depot and Lowe’s and a brand of tools named Tomboy Tools that fit into a woman’s hands. So taking out the trash is the only real reason to keep a man on hand.

I found myself muttering under my breath last night as I dragged a can to the curb in a cold rain. What redeeming qualities could garbage duty have? My sister told me her husband sent her a text yesterday about putting the garbage can out in the back yard filled with bleach water – it was very smelly. I asked if it could be any smellier than mine with adult diapers in it. Her answer – deer heads from the recent hunting trip four days ago. Ouch. In our weather. Baking in a plastic bag for days.

I wondered how on earth do the trash guys do this job every day? And with no reward other than a minimal salary. I wonder if they have discussions at lunch about the worst thing they picked up that day. I wonder if anyone ever says thank you. I wonder how their family stands the smell when they arrive home. Then I had this mental image of a little boy racing down a cracked sidewalk to greet his dad with open arms. No holding back. Daddy is home from his day at work. Daddy is just daddy, not a smelly garbage collector. He is the hero of the house. He is the strongest man on the planet. He is the smartest man his child knows.

I now see these people with new eyes. I see the faces of determined men who, for lack of education, will never amount to much more than the title of trash guy. However, their grit and determination to work and put food on the table will do much to install the drive in their children to expect more and do better.

A while back I met a Home Depot delivery man the evening we purchased a refrigerator. The delivery was very late, and I thanked him for his time. He informed me that evening delivery was his second job. He had a daughter in college. Guess what? She wasn’t in the local community college, either. She was in an Ivy League school. This father set everything aside in life to make that possible for her. It also shows that he spent her formative years implanting the knowledge that a certain course in life was possible. It was obvious that he wasn’t content with letting her plug into a computer game or stay on a cell phone for most of her young life.

We see so many cases where the young people we observe today create a stereotype that instills almost fear for our future. I mean, if they don’t know what pant size they should be wearing so their
underwear show, or they have to hold them up to walk (God forbid if they had to run from a burning building!) and their language and grammar are atrocious, who the heck is going to run this country? I’ll tell you who - some garbage man’s daughter or son who watched a hardworking parent make the sacrifice for their future.

It’s the people who are handed the best and the easiest way of life that we need to worry about. The Paris Hiltons of this world will never contribute anything to the betterment of society unless some board trustee overseeing their money makes hefty donations to charity, not for charitable reasons, but for the tax advantages.

No, give me the hope that some underpaid, sweaty, unshaven man riding shotgun on the garbage truck will have vision for his children. And grant me the spine to approach them to say thank you. I just bought three gift cards to a restaurant to hand out Thursday morning. I may be late for work, but I will come to work with a fresher outlook on life.