"Weekend Trash Troopers!"

Trash Trooper...

Many thanks to St. Tammany Parish's "Keep St.Tammany Beautiful", all the great folks at Giddy Up Folsom https://www.giddyupfolsom.com/, David Campbell, and Little River Bluffs for presenting the opportunity to clean up the country side yesterday.

Jose and I teamed up to cruise and cleanup Hwy.#40 South from Gene's Tire Center all the way up to the Donut Stop. (I was tempted by the fragrance of apple fritters, but I was strong! I had a job to do!)

Jose and I started small with cigarette filters but quickly went into the heavier stuff. Although some of it was paper, the majority of what I picked up was plastic... Plastic bottles, bags and containers. So sad.

I'm not sure any environment can continue handling plastic!

Jose found a gold mine inside a roadside storm drain. That kept him busy for awhile while I went sifting through the shrubbery around the local bank. Talk about an identity theft motherload of bank and ATM receipts, it sure was there and available amongst the Gatorade, Pepsi and Sprite debris. Also, someone had to pixilate himself to check on his balance. Fifths of vodka, Jack and Scotch, were extricated from the thorny shrubs along the drive-in. I didn't take me long to learn how to enter the bushes with the tongs closed in order to avoid the briar patches.

Heading south it didn't take me and Jose long to drop off the first bags and start anew. There's was plenty of time to think.

Attempting to have faith in my fellow man, I wondered how many people actually just throw trash out of their car windows. One of the big culprits is truck beds. Somehow, folks seem to think trash thats thrown there won't go anywhere. But, then, there's those like the small pickup I found in the Main's parking lot with two half drunken sodas just discarded outside the passenger side door. Makes little sense when the grocery store has two plastic containers for trash as your approach the door.

Besides being careless and inconsiderate of others, those actions indirectly steal a part of one's own soul... piece by piece.

I picked up a Slim Jim wrapper and it immediately took me back to a discussion I had with my son. For a while, I'd take Brian to college in Hammond on Monday mornings. He was having a nutritious start of the week gnawing at a Slim Jim.

When he finished it, he opened the window and threw the wrapper out of it...

"What was that?" I asked.

"What!" he replied.

"Since when have we started to trash the highways, man?"

"I'm sorry, he said. You wanna turn back and I'll pick it up?"

"No Brian." I want you to remember how you not only disrespect nature, but everyone living in it." I want you to THINK about it how you got to this point."

"Telling me that you're sorry means very little to me, man!"

"You've never ever done that in SoCal and you know what you'd get if you did... Right?"

"So why do that here in Louisiana, man!"

"Besides, it ain't about the punishment, Brian... It's about one's personal integrity. Like trust, once you lose it, it becomes harder and harder to get it back and to love oneself."

"A hundred ground balls, Brian... One hundred ground balls, man!"

"I know. I wasn't thinking... I'm sorry!"

Silence reigned the rest of the ride to school.

Hanging around after about two hours on the road adding to a second bag, I was glad the weather was conducive to such an event.

Standing in the hamburger line, one guy mentioned the small amount of surgical gloves and masks. I said that I was surprised to not find any condoms. As we all chuckled about it, one guy yells from back of the line...

"I found one... just one!

Copyright 2021/Ben Bensen III