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High School Pop Can Story .... totally off topic !!

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse

Well-known Member
OK, if you are a member of the off-topic police, STOP READING IMMEDIATELY ... OK, you've been warned.

This story isn't really much, just a little thing that happened last week but it really stuck with me for some reason. We live fairly close to a large urban high school, probably 1500 kids go there. Last week I was driving near the school during the noon hour break. A group of girls, maybe 15 or 16 years of age were walking along a sidewalk, probably heading to one of the local convenience stores to grab a sub or just hang out. There was an empty coke can alongside the sidewalk and as the group passed by, one of the kids walked over to it, picked it up, emptied out the remnants and put it in her purse or knapsack (or whatever kids use nowadays). Not one of the other girls batted an eye, just happened quickly and the story was over.

So what's the big deal? Here's my take on what happened. She was maybe the only kid on the planet nowadays of that age group who would pick up an empty pop can that's worth ten cents. Most adults would pass by without picking it up. Granted, maybe her soccer team was fundraising by collecting cans and bottles, but even so .... to me she showed a lot of grit doing that in 2018. Definitely one of a kind and I pass along credit for her being the way she is. And if she was grabbing it for her own or her family's benefit, even more kudos to her. That young lady is gonna do well in whatever she decides to do with her future I think.
 
I take a plastic bag with me when going for a walk in my neighborhood, goal is to find at least 5 cans each walk. Turns exercise into a scavenger hunt.
 
Not at all where I thought the story was going ! lol.
I was waiting for the part where they threw it at you !!!!!
 
that is a lot different than the jerks that throw their trash in lawn of people near me.
the woman that lives there sends lots of time keeping up lawn and flowers.
I think it is same people that will throw their fast food wrappers out the car window on the way by.

I don't know what thrill they get by trashing her lawn.
 
The next generation of kids seem kinda split much like the older adults are. There is an aggressive uncaring portion, we hear the problems of them a lot.

There is also a very socially conservative, fiscally conservative group. They want a small space, no debt, take care of their corner of the world. At times they confuse me but that 8 just youth and inexperience on their part or old furry who can?t take change on my part..... but, these kids are really something. They want enough electronics to enjoy the day with, and beyond that they don?t want much. Automobile and driving, some don?t get a license until they are 20. Lots don?t have a credit card.

A nephew wanted to buy a house, had the down payment saved up, but bank did t know what to do with him, he had no credit history. He had to get a credit card and use it once, then wait 6 months so there was enough paper trail for the bank to mark their little boxes with little check marks to fit into their loan packages. He is not alone, there are a lot of kids that go that direction.

They even talk pleasantly about the Conservative party these days, and we might be going an ok direction. This bunch likes their electronic like past generations liked automobiles; but they are starting to disconnect from Twitter, Facebook, and the other ?herd mentality? social media outlets. So you won?t catch their views and leanings and such on all the polls and statistics you see now a days that are based on just Facebook users.

It?s kinda refreshing to see.

Paul

Paul
 
One can is not worth anywhere near a dime. At $0.50 per pound and 32 cans per pound, one can is worth about a penny and a half.

Still worth picking up. For years I've said the following:

If pennies are three feet apart on the sidewalk I think I could pick up two miles of pennies in an hour. Hard, back breaking work, but there would be $35.20 cents in a mile. Tax free. I will work for $35.20/hr, and to pick up one penny in a parking lot at $35.20/hr rate and not break a sweat is a good gig.

Now I still can't figure out whether it's worth pulling over to pick up one piece of firewood.
 
Shoot back when I was a kid I would ride my bike around and pick up pop bottles. It had saddle baskets on it. Back then you got 3 cent per bottle but when a 6oz cock cost a Nickle 2 bottle got you a soda.
 
California has a 5 cents for small cans, and 10 cents for large aluminum cans deposit. The plastic water bottles are around 5 cents also. I never bothered with taking cans or bottles back, but when I did I got around 40.00 dollars. Better than nothing. Stan
 
I would doubt that the girl's motivation was simply money, more likely she just wanted to pick up the trash.
 
Michigan has a 10cent deposit on soda and beer containers. Since 2010 when I was recovering from my burns my wife and I would take golf cart rides on our dirt country roads. During these trips we would pickup all the returnables we would find. Over the course of the summer we would collect enough to pay for at least half the gas for the cart. There was lots more out there including but not limited to water, tea, Gatorade, single serve milk, and liquor bottles. We always commented that we wished there was deposit on all these, ONE to keep the trash off the roads to begin with and TWO, so those like us would help clean the roads by picking them up.
 
There is a guy around here that a couple times a month goes by on a quad picking up cans. He works at a local sawmill here. This year he bought a new quad. We are friends with his folks and he was here one day with his mother and I mentioned his quad. He said he bought it with the money he got from picking up cans for the last 2 years. There have been times I took our mule and went to the store a couple miles away with the grandkids and I would stop so they could pickup the cans. Many times they got at least 2 dollars each in just that short distance
 
If I am with my empty pickup, I will pick up one if I am out of the truck and the can is near by. I save cans but never sell cans; guess I am just a hoarder with about three barrels full
 
I think it is tractor-related. After her dad's ancient tractor died in the field yet again, he ruminated at the dinner table about how he would sure like a new can to put over the exhaust. The old one was wearing thin and, besides, he'd accidentally stepped on it while chasing off a groundhog. Since the family had for beverages only water and fresh-squeezed milk from Millie the cow, there was no reason to have a can around.

Anyway, sounds like a good kid, regardless of her motives.
 
Just got ten dollars for cans where no deposit in Indiana. Had local guy in western Colorado who paid folks for cans by weight. He smashed hundreds of cans in driveway, loaded trailer full and drove to Californian. Not quite lawful but he did pay cash for material to build his new house. I think maybe he had a deal with a can buyer in California.
 
My take?
She's been indoctrinated by the school to think the earth is her mother and very sacred. Why, just a few more pop cans thrown along the side of the road will make the planet keel over and be lost forever. So she was saving her mother.
When she gets somewhere she will throw it into the recycling bin and not care about the dime.
 
On a Sunday afternoon last winter I was walking along the road watching for bottles and cans thrown into my hay fields. A stranger couple came along and heaped accolades of praise upon me for caring for the environment. Heck, I just wanted that stuff out of my hay! (Well, I did graciously accept the praise!)
 
I have a small campground on my farm set up by family and friends. The standing joke is you camp for free but you leave you cans. Tell every one that is how I pay for every thing.(not so). One day a friend showed up with a pop in a plastic bottle I (jokingly) told him he would have to leave.
 
I have a small twp. rd running the complete 1/2 mile on south end of my home farm. There is a lady walks her two dogs every day along that road. Been doing it for years. She looks very well off. Nice new car, nice clothes. She waves to me every round I come to end. She picks up all the trash every day along that road. Couple years ago when I was working field I stopped to adjust something on end right as she was walking by. I went out and thanked her for keeping that road clean. She appreciated that acknowledgement more then if I'd handed her $100 bill.
 
Thing of it is guys is that there are more good kids out there than there are bad. The good kids we don't notice unless they do something unusual or spectacular! The bad kids? We notice whatever they do.

Rick
 
Good to see at least one of the younger generation picking up trash. Seems the majority are more likely to contribute to the problem. I just can't believe how much of it I see even out on our country roads. Even if the aluminum cans were worthless, you shouldn't just toss them out to litter the countryside. We were taught this as kids back in the 60s. The same times when I would pedal my bike along the roads with a potato sack to gather empty bottles (no cans in those days) to supplement my meagre funds. I think they were worth a cent or two at the time.
 
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