What up, family?! Today I really wanted to share
some jewels with you, these jewels are coming straight from the back of a
garbage truck. Yes, you read that right, gems from the hopper. Another man’s
trash is another man’s treasure, I now know the true meaning of that phrase. So
y’all could say that right now that I’m going to bless y’all with the treasure
map, the spades, and I’m going to do the digging. All you gotta do is enjoy
these gems.
All trash men or garbage men have this phrase,
“the trash talks to you.” It’s true the trash does so to speak “talks”, you can
tell a lot about a person by their trash and trash can. My routes were mainly
in west Omaha/Elkhorn/Millard, so you would think that I had it easy, right?
Wrong. People out west are nasty, a ton of maggots, numerous pill bottles, and
they don’t believe in trash bags. Just naked trash in the can and so you could
get f*cked up throwing those cans because people out west drink a lot of wine. And
by a lot I mean about 10 to 14 bottles in the can. Oh and people out in those
areas have roaches and I am not speaking on the water bugs that be by drains in
folks basements, nah fam, I am speaking on straight up project “I wish a nigga
would try and stop on me roaches.”
So
what am I trying to tell you? Don’t be ashamed of where you are at now, most of
my down North folks dream of living out west and envy those out there. Don’t.
Those folks are living in hell, so many of these people pop pills for
everything under the sun, they drink their weight in merlot, and they got
roaches also. Some of the areas in Millard, like right by the water tower, the
people look like the walking dead. You know they are on that GetGo aka Meth. Their
homes resemble crack houses or trap houses. So don’t be so quick to envy, down
North issues get aired out daily by the media, they just hide it better out
west.
I
had many drivers in my time doing waste pick up for the city of Omaha, Millard,
and Elkhorn. One driver tried to play me, most lazy drivers will try to play
you. But this driver took the cake, he tells me off rip that he gets out and
helps. So helping means that if there are 4 cans or more the driver will hop
out and throw with you or if you are double siding a street, the driver hops
out if there are a total of 5 more cans combined on both sides of the street.
So we get to the first stop and he says to me, “hey I don’t know if they told
you, but I’m on light duty. So I can’t help.” I respond with, “Oh, ok cool.” I
walk to every single garbage can, I take my sweet ass time getting on the
riding step and getting in to the cab. And the driver is complaining the whole
time, “We need to be moving faster.” “Man, you need to move faster, we won’t
ever get this route done.” And I replied, “Yes, WE need to be moving faster.” “YOU’RE
RIGHT! I do need to move faster, but I won’t.” So naturally he just shuts the
hell up. And do you know by the 9th hour of that route, we had 4
trucks in there helping us? I kid you not.
So
what can you learn from this? Don’t let someone ride your back and take the
credit for the work that you did. I know a few of y’all have to deal with this
when you’re working on a group project. I am not telling you to sacrifice your
grade so that the lazy asshole can learn a lesson. Just holla at your professor
and let him/her know what’s going on. Don’t ever be with the shits. And it
feels good sometimes to give folks a piece of their own medicine.
I
spoke on having numerous drivers in the above story, you can learn a lot from
the folks if you have an open mind. I have worked with guys/gals almost 10yrs
my junior and guys that are almost twice my age. And I have learned a lot by
just shutting up and listening to them tell their tales. I’ve learned about
different cities, how to open up a small business, how to be a better lover, friend,
and companion to my lady, how to be a more understanding son, I’ve learned the
importance of “being broke for bullshit”. I have to credit the big homey JB with
that, besides driving for WM, he owns a barbershop/beautyshop with his wife. He
always put me on game about how to deal with money, so that’s why “being broke
for bullshit” is the wave that I’m on. Build first, turn up later.
Also
I have to warn my fellas out there, take care of your woman. There are a lot of
lonely attached women flirting with your neighborhood trash man. You out
cheating on your wife with your receptionist and she running outside in a
sports bra and boy shorts (yes, panties) giving out Gatorades. Or she’s running
outside with cold water bottles in a slip with no bra, tryna talk about the
weather and how sweaty the trash man is. Take care of home, fellas or you gonna
be paying alimony to ya wife while she gets piped down by a man that throws
70-120lb cans about 900 times a day. You don’t want them type of problems, fam.
And to my trash men, don’t fall for that bait…especially if you gotta woman at
home. Take the Gatorade or water, say thank you and keep it pushing. You don’t
wanna creep back over there and come face to face with a 12 gauge shotty. Ya
life aint worth some neglected pussy.
I
feel like I have dropped enough jewels on ya dome, so y’all should be able to
build a crown. So next time you see ya neighborhood trash man, give him/her a
headnod or a bottle of water. They work hard, damn hard. Peace.