I GUESS THE KIDS LOVE THE "TRASH LADY!"

 

I was picking up the trash around a playground tonight, and a little girl said she had a message for me.  I followed her to the sidewalk, and she had drawn a picture just for me.  Then she said, "Thank you for cleaning our playground."

Ahhh, what a sweetheart!  That made my day. 

One of my friends told me she could tell I haven't picked up trash for five days.  I drove to Tennessee to see my son, and a little break did me good.  I was excited to pick up trash tonight.

I went to the pizza place at Arlington & Wilbeth, and she was right.  I picked up 1,845 pieces of trash on this corner.  I've seen it bad before, but never this bad.  It's only been 10 days since I cleaned this corner.  How could it get this messed up in 10 days? 

The chicken place was lined up.  The pizza place was packed.  Why do people eat at places that don't pick up their trash?  There were chicken bones and pizza slices scattered all over the parking lot.   

It's true that people tend to litter more when an area is trashed up. 

And I found another fluorescent light, only this time, it was not broken.  I stopped what I was doing and carried it to the dumpster before I broke it.

This is the drive through at the chicken place.  People watched me pick up all this trash.  I wonder what they were thinking.

There was a woman in the passenger's side of a car waiting in line. She was talking to me, and I didn't hear her.  I walked closer and she said, "People are pigs!  They throw trash everywhere."

I wanted to say, "And your point?"  

Maybe it was good that she noticed the trash when she saw me picking everything up.  Maybe she won't throw her cigarette butt on the ground now.   

I found a nail, three bolts and tiny keys in the parking lot where everybody was thinking about food.  

After I finished that, I went to another area and picked up 535 pieces before my timer went off. 

It was a very good day.