One Man's Trash Another Man's Treasure

One of my favorite things about my job (and there aren't a ton) are the people. I work with a diverse group. More recently I've worked closely with the Town Manager who has solicited my help on three different projects (one of them being confidential, ooh la la.) At work I can find myself anywhere between the Manager's office to the mail room. My favorite (and sometimes least favorite!) people are the guys. The guys are mostly men. The guys are the folks doing the hard labor: the garbage men, the streets and construction crews, the stormwater maintenance crews, the landscape crews, the traffic and sign crews. Sometimes I will go for walks on my lunch break; I walk along the main road where the trucks will drive in and they will honk and wave. They honk because they know me, not because they are "construction guys" honking at a girl passing by, I love it. One of the great things about them is that they are very family/community oriented. I think this is a southern thing. If I walk into a crew room and they say something inappropriate or utter a swear word they ALWAYS say, "Excuse me, sug (short for sugar), I'm sorry." It's taken me a while to get used to the nicknames (sug, dearheart, babe (I highly dislike being called babe for some reason, even by the huz.), sweetie, hon, etc. Sug is my favorite, probably because it is so very southern. I embrace it, even if it may seem sexist to some. Anyhoo, another thing I noticed is that if I borrow a quarter from one of them to get something from the snack machine I will always say, "I'll bring you a quarter tomorrow." and they ALWAYS say, "No need, sweetie." Once one guy said, "No, sweetie, we're like a family. You don't need to pay me back." We're like a family - WOW. I don't even hang out with these guys or know what their wives or children's names are, yet we are like family. It's amazing how most of them go about things with such open arms. Even though I don't feel like I know them "like family" I do know that they've got my back. I feel like I have 50 big brothers; this baby of mine will have 50 uncles and 7 aunts, just at work. My favorite garbage man is named Harold:

 

He picks up bulky items and dead animals. He's always cheerful and he almost always has something hilarious to say. He brings us framed artwork that has been tossed away, old MAD magazines, little Smurf figurines from someone's discarded Happy Meal. He's a 'treasure' finder. Most of the knick-knacks on my desk are Harold finds. Some of the other garbage men bring us things too. One guy, Timothy, brought me an unopened container of colorful paperclips...1,000 paperclips that some student probably tossed away. A couple of weeks ago Kent, who goes by the nickname Hollywood, brought us an unopened Chia Obama kit that someone tossed away unopened. Ali sowed the seeds and waters Chia Obama daily but he never sprouted on the top of his head so he looks more like Caesar or something, he's so sad looking:

The unopened box said, "Hail to the Ch-ch-ch-Chief!" Ha! One day, maybe 3 weeks ago, Kent sauntered in with his XL shirt on his small tattooed frame. I couldn't see him at first but heard a strumming sound and he stopped at my desk and handed me a little kid's guitar and said, "This is for your baby." It's practically in perfect condition. I told him that my husband plays guitar and that someday he can teach the wee one to play on it. Kent found this guitar in someone's trash can. I can't believe the things that people just toss away rather than donate. Here is Kent posing with the guitar!