GreenfieldNOW.com
search all things local
     
Blog Home |  Email Author  |  About this Blog       Welcome to MyCommunityNOW - Blogs Sign in | Join

Both Sides of the Fence

A Tosa resident since 1991, Christine walks the dog, raises kids, cooks but avoids housework, writes and reads, and works too much. A Quaker and The Aging Maven, she has been known to stand on both sides of the political and philosophic fence at the same time, which is very uncomfortable when you think about it. She writes about pretty much whatever stops in to visit her busy mind at the moment. One reader described her as "incredibly opinionated but not judgmental." That sounds like a good thing to strive for!

Bodies on the parkway

By Christine McLaughlin
Monday, Mar 17 2008, 08:13 AM

Walking along the Underwood Parkway, Idgy and I came upon a section of yellow crime scene tape.

Of course, it wasn't surrounding a crime scene. It was just part of the jetsam tossed up by the receding snows. Not the best sign of spring, but a sure thing.

And then there was the toll of pot-hole-pocked roads. We found bits of housings, hub caps, tire shreds, and most of a motorcycle exhaust system.

I don't know if we should be encouraged by a better class of litter this year. Along with the parkway litterer's usual beverages of choice (Mountain Dew, Pabst, and Southern Comfort) were the remains of vitamin waters, Bitter Woman IPA, and a nice French Chardonnay-Viognier, Le Grand Noir (The Black Sheep). Inexpensive, but it pairs well with salmon.

I didn't see any gourmet dinners, but I did learn that Taco Bell offers The Fourth Meal. Apparently, this is for the starving people of America who can't make it from dinner to breakfast and need concentrated nourishment to make it through the night. Judging by the leavings, there seem to be many of the were it not for this wasting away's right here in our town.  

People are still smoking Marlboros. Lots of them, judging by the crumpled packs under the evergreens. That brand, in case you didn't know, is owned by Altria, a Kraft Foods spinoff that bought Phillip Morris, got rid of Kraft, and bought up SABMiller, which owns you know what. If you want to know what business values, there's the story in a softpack and a six pack.

Next time we'll bring along a black trash bag and declare ourselves Tosa anthropologists. And we don't have to disturb a single bone to study the habits of the natives.

Comments

Thomas   

Christine...

You would be a Tosa archeologist.

A number of years ago my wife and I did some volunteer work for the park service in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho - it was an archaeological survey of a silver mining town - coincidentally financed by a collection of early Milwaukee financers.

That's the way you study ancient (and recent)cultures.  You sift through their garbage.  If you really want to get to the bottom of things (so to speak) you need to excavate an old privy.  

You wouldn't believe what people throw down the hole of their outhouses.

Tom

March 17, 2008 5:35 PM

Leave a Comment

Please Sign In to post comment.

Posts

Your browser must support javascript to use the posts pager. Please enable javascript or return to the home page to page through posts.
Newer Older

Tags

Search the Blogs