Recycling Day!

As a child my Grandpa Bozo and Granny Grunt saved all their aluminum cans for me. A couple times a year they'd dump out garbage bags and bags and bags full and have me stomp them down. They taught me how to squish them juuust right in the middle so they'd stay stuck to my shoes. Then I'd run around in circles on the driveway. It made the perfect sound of a a horse clopping. Oh, what great fun that was for a kid!

It was always a huge deal when we'd gathered, smashed and bagged enough to fill the truck bed. They'd make a whole afternoon of loading 'em up and haulin' them and me to the recycling center. I'd help get all the bags out, weigh them, and then get to help dump them in the giant compacting machine. After all the work was finished I'd follow my granddad over to the office to collect the money. He'd always make a big deal to the cashier about how I'd collected, smashed, bagged and hauled them in. He and my Granny made me feel like I'd done the whole job all by myself and make me believe I deserved the whole amount of money all to myself. So with my fist full of money, I'd plan to buy my mom a mansion, myself a horse and my grandparents a motor home... all with my $20 or $30.

Big Shooter has much the same memories (sans the granny and granddad) about collecting cans and earning extra cash as a kid. So it was only natural we shared these memories with the Crumb Snatchers when we discovered our demolished shed in the backyard after the Monster Ice Storm. Big Shooter had the boy child frothing at the mouth in expectation of the extra $ he'd earn by helping dismantle the mangled mess, haul it out of the back, load it in the truck and haul it to the recycling center. After unloading it, weighing it and getting to watch the Way Cool Gigantumous Claw pick it up, they went to the office in anticipation of their reward.

Aluminum is .85 cents a pound...and they had 230 pounds!

Can you imagine their excitement?

Too bad the shed was tin...$25 a ton.

Here's their receipt...

Just in case you can't read the small blurry number - it's $2.88.

Now, as funny as that is...here's the kicker. Big Shooter drives an Excursion a.k.a. Gas Hog that gets 9 miles to the gallon... it cost $5 in gas just to haul the shed there...