Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Americana

The sign of the times:

Today I drove down a tree-lined street. It was garbage day, so the garbage truck was stopping, and a garbage man (or what used to be called garbage men- what is it now? Environmental Elf? Waste Management Intern?) was hopping out, grabbing cans, and loading them into the lift that dumped it into the big container.

As I got closer, I saw that he was lifting the cans with one hand, and emptying them, and then tossing them very skillfully back to where they belonged. For a moment, I thought- "Is he showing off? Is he exercising his "garbage can" arm?

Finally I passed him. He was on a cell phone, talking while holding it up to his ear. There are just no words for that kind of skill.

2 comments:

gs said...

I've seen this, too. I would think they would at least want to use a hands-free.

Clarateaches said...

I'd love to know- what does the other person even hear? How do they talk over what (to me) sounds like a really loud diesel engine?