Wednesday, 3/27

I wonder if anyone knows this about me?

I received a text from daily blog reader Chicky-Poo in Melbourne Beach, Florida over the weekend (hi, dad!), and he was telling me about a video he was watching. The video dealt with a seven year old, and how the seven year old's dad was supposed to speak to his class. The dad had something come up, so the kid instead asked his garbage collector to come in and talk about collecting trash.

Apparently, the garbage collector was the most popular speaker the class had all day.

Anyway, my dad brought this up because of his nerdy first-born. As has become readily apparently over the years, I was an unusual kid (thankfully, I grew out of that, right? (and as a side note, it's a pity sarcasm doesn't transform into the written word very well). And that...uniqueness apparently translated into my first-ever dream job. Nowadays, my dream job is to be a beach bum; when I was growing up, it was astronaut. But when I was five or so, I had a really different dream job.

I wanted to be a trash collector.

I don't really recall this personally, but both my parents have mentioned it over the years. When I was young, I would always wait for the day when the garbage truck would come by. I would then watch as the trash dudes threw stuff into the back of the truck, and stare in fascination as everything was compacted together. Whether it was the truck or the noise or something else, I don't know. But whatever it was made me proclaim to my ever-understanding parents that, one day, I wanted to be a garbage collector.

How I went from that to doing what I do now...I have no idea.

It actually reminds me of what happened here ten or so years ago, when we had a first or second grade class tour the station. There was one boy who, when told that we had a big battery downstairs to keep things running if the power went out, had no further interest in the station itself, or talking on the air, or recording himself. All he wanted to see was the big battery. He kept asking about it until I took him downstairs and showed him.

And by doing that, I'm pretty sure we made his day.

Kids are interested in what adults think are the strangest things. But that's what makes them kids. They're curious. They're learning about the world, and what makes it run. And if they see or hear about something that's big or loud or both, so much the better, whether it's a battery or a garbage truck.

Some kids, in fact, are so impressed that, if even for a short while, they dream of growing up and being able to put one to use every day when they go to work.

(jim@wmqt.com), garbage collector in another life.