CAUTION!!! DON'T READ THIS ONE IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH!

 

It was so hot picking up trash tonight!  Hot and trash don't belong in the same sentence together.  Most likely the grossest night yet, and there have been a lot of them.

I knew the street I wanted to clean, so I parked in the parking lot, but I saw trash in the bushes, so I picked all that up.  Then I saw trash around this playground, so I picked all that up.

(The picture doesn't do justice.  It was a horrible mess.)

I picked up 2,333 pieces of trash around this playground.  Where does it all come from?  Oh my goodness!

I pick up trash around playgrounds, because I love children, and there are so many dangerous things that can harm them.  So many things.

Like this broken glass, clear no less!  

And I picked up little socks, which means the children are playing in bare feet.

I would never let my kids play here.

I thought maybe there was an incredible amount of trash because there are no trash cans.

But then I saw one lonely trash can not too far away . . . and it was surrounded by garbage bags full of rotting trash!  Surrounded!

And the thing that makes no sense, well, none of this makes any sense, but look at the dumpster.  It's 30 feet away!  People can't walk 30 more feet and dispose of their garbage properly?

It was almost more than I could stand, and I can stand a lot.  But I thought how awful it is to have garbage this close to the sliding boards and swing sets, and I decided to get rid of it.

I set the first disgusting bag on my trash bag in my cart.

When I picked it up, my bag was covered with maggots!  I thought I was going to throw up.

But I didn't, and I was more determined than ever to clean this up, and I did.

And then I made a new friend.  A little girl who wanted to help me.  She was adorable.  We started to clean this area together and then her mother called her.  I was a little disappointed, because she was such good company, and she reminded me why I pick up trash.

Then she came running back with gloves on!  How about that?

I showed her how to crush a can.  She was delighted!  What a simple thing.  She ran around looking for cans so she could crush them just like I did.

My bucket, that has been with me a year and a half, went in the dumpster.  So did my stinky trash bag.  Everything else was disinfected as soon as I got home. 

I'm at 680,603 pieces.  

I'm getting there!