Garbage Truck

Something I thought about this morning, and then by noon forgot about… again resurfaced a moment ago. I’d like to think about it more.

So, before tomorrow morning arrives (with all its chaos) I’ll write it down.

Every morning I walk my children to school. Some mornings are rushed, some are slow. But always the same three blocks down the hill. The youngest two aren’t enrolled yet, and they make the long trudge back up the hill. This part of the walk is never hurried. There is a small swing at the top of the hill. We stop to rest and play almost every day. This morning as we rested a garbage truck pulled onto our street. Two men work together, one drives while the other runs between the curbs emptying bins into the compactor. The tiny humans with me watch carefully, garbage and dump trucks have a hypnotizing effect on small children.

I watched as our garbage man pull two pieces of bread from the half empty bins and fold them neatly into the hinges of his dirty compactor, was he saving them for later? I took a second look at the man to see if he looked hungry… can you really tell from a glance? But maybe. He was thin, yet strong enough to be emptying hundreds of cans before his lunch break. I thought, most likely there is water with birds or ducks nearby that he’d be saving it for? My curiosity wasn’t greater than my pride, and though I may have felt compassion I didn’t act on it. He continued to run between the curbs, working quickly.

The children watched and waved enthusiastically as the truck moved on down the street. The man at the back tapped the side of the tuck and it stopped. The men waived as the driver walked back to hand them each small chocolates wrapped in foil. I didn’t stop them from eating the chocolate… I thought about it but let that thought pass. It was a generous gift from two men I had just determined weren’t hungry.

I thought about their work. Always polite, and friendly. Doing a job that is usually only acknowledged as a complaint is lodged when someone isn’t there to take the waste away. Maybe the driver was just glad to have a “Hello” and a smile.