In Which Our Landfill Is A Playground

Okay, so at some point I'll tell you all about our New Year's, which was a lot of fun, but I have to share this story with you first.

Yesterday afternoon Jeremy and I took another load of junk not fit for the thrift store or the recycling bin from our garage to the land fill.  Next to us, a man in a truck with a trailer attached pulled in.  The first thing I noticed was that he was throwing stuff on the giant mound of garbage while wearing flip flops. 

I glanced at the concrete floor, which was covered in a thin sludge with an oily rainbow sheen, and shrugged.  Then I heard a high pitched giggle and a couple of shrieks.  I looked over again. 

This guy had two kids with him-- probably both under the age of seven.  And they were playing in the garbage. 

They were shrieking and running around on top of the huge, smelly mound of trash, tearing open black garbage bags, pulling things out of the mound to examine, and at one point, pelting each other with bits of unidentifiable rubbish.  Something about a dead rat was mentioned.  One boy found a small, dented metal trash bin, turned it upside down to tip the garbage out and then wore it as a hat.  The boys would drag whatever they'd found over to their dad, who would then throw it back on the pile without comment.  They were still at it when we left.

I mean, dumpster diving is one thing, but I draw the line at allowing children to have garbage fights and use unwashed trashcans as headgear.  I hope those kids took long, long showers when they got home.  Also I hope that they're up to date on their tetanus shots. 

Wow.


~Jess