Mad-Town, USA
Madison is so weird sometimes. Especially during moving weekend.
A moment ago, I watched a man in a wheelchair poke his casted leg into my accumulated trash heap rooting for junk to take home. He rolled away with a g-nasty old frying pan and the batteries from my rejected remote control. Another guy loaded his car with six bags of my roommate’s APSRs.
I actually got somewhat offended when an entirely different derelict took a can of baked beans from my neighbor’s trash can but then picked up and rejected a perfectly good ceramic bowl out of my pile.
The low point, though, was probably when one looter took a trash bag (full of rotten vegetables from my fridge) out of my hands as I was bringing it outside. I didn’t have the heart to say anything to him.
A moment ago, I watched a man in a wheelchair poke his casted leg into my accumulated trash heap rooting for junk to take home. He rolled away with a g-nasty old frying pan and the batteries from my rejected remote control. Another guy loaded his car with six bags of my roommate’s APSRs.
I actually got somewhat offended when an entirely different derelict took a can of baked beans from my neighbor’s trash can but then picked up and rejected a perfectly good ceramic bowl out of my pile.
The low point, though, was probably when one looter took a trash bag (full of rotten vegetables from my fridge) out of my hands as I was bringing it outside. I didn’t have the heart to say anything to him.
posted by OleNelson at 2:17 PM
4 Comments:
First of all, it is not sad that people are resourceful enough to use items that are no longer of use to someone else. That they smartly recognize the fact that maybe those second-hand items will improve upon or add to their own lives is a commendable thing that cuts down on consumerism and waste in this country. Second of all, if your statement is given the benefit of the doubt, if it is granted that you feel sad because there is terrible poverty in this world, then it is curious that you would also deny your sympathy to the fact that a majority of poor people in this world do not have access to the internet, or libraries, or higher education. I'm wondering if your sense of the pitiful and the amusing are somewhat skewed, or at least out of balance.
Finally, while I might agree with you about food that's not altogether fresh or scholarly journals which are not altogether interesting (I'd like to consume neither really), who are we to deny someone thier "g-nasty" nourishment?
Huh? Are you kidding me with this, Mr. Truth? The guy I referenced was clearly looking for free stuff, not starving for food. There's a difference.
And let's try to stay on the friendly side of the great friendly/mean divide.
When I put out trash, I make sure to put a post-it on it saying that it is full of used feminine hygiene products. That clears up any confusion.
This list o' comments has me laughing harder than I did when I read your post. And that's saying something.
And on another note, I know someone who knows someone who regularly scans the dumpsters of grocery marts and restaurants for sources of food and drink. She takes all the free shit she can get. Once she found pounds and pounds of unwrapped fudge outside of a high class candy store. She placed said unwrapped fudge in her backpack (I envision a scoop and dump motion) and carted it away for noshing. Needless to say, she was sick with intestinal illness within hours. She's had better luck with unopened bottles of wine. One bottle breaks and, apparently, the whole case gets thrown.
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