by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
It again and again amazes me what people throw away simple for throwing it or what they lose or leave behind in parks and open spaces.
Recently, in one morning during work as a Park Keeper – yes, one does work and ordinary job to support one's writing – on “litter patrol” found a set of working good quality earphones from an MP3 player – thrown into the trash, the why of which beats me; a beanie summer hat (in the bush hat style) and a, and this beats things, does it not, military issue kit bag virtually brand new.
This is just one morning's booty from what could be reused as is and hats and such can be found rather frequently, including in the deepest of winter. How anyone can forget a hat is something beyond me but... such things happen rather frequently.
On another occasion it was a “Black Widow” kind of slingshot – now there are not cheap – thrown because the power band broke.
Finding clothing of various kinds is not a strange occurrence but what surprises me again and again is the fact that people do not seem to notice that they have lost this or that item, and I mean it is not a case that it was left on a bench, for instance.
But, as someone once said, there is naught as strange as folks and he or she is ever so right in this.
Obviously, on other occasions the stuff is actually being actively thrown away by people as they – even though it may be basically new – do not want to keep this or that and they rid themselves of it in their local parks. Strange, I know, but...
Previous finds of items purposely thrown out or purposely left behind have been a 12V DC to 240V AC inverter (in its box brand new, basically), a brand new AM/FM transistor radio (with its box, mains lead, and all). The latter items was left behind because the people could not be bothered – after a picnic – to take it home with them and it had only just been bought on that day; the receipt was still in the box.
Other finds are lost reading glasses that no one seems to go and look for, left on a bench or seat in the park, and reading glasses can be costly too, even the ones that you can buy off the shelf, which those finds mostly are. This proves that folks still have too much money and the recession is not biting hard enough – as yet.
Not that I mind as I do give most of those items a new home or find a new home for them if they are not of immediate use to myself. Being thus minded like I one does have one problem though and that is that one tends to run out of storage space rather quickly in one's home. Though my adage is to “starve the landfill”.
Then there are the occasions when money is left behind or even accidentally thrown into litter bins out with receipts from a wallet simply because people are too careless and there are often in the form of £10 or £20 notes even. I am not complaining on that front though; the more the merrier I would say on that occasion. And, oh yeah, thanks.
© 2009
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