Trash Stories of the Day

Ray's Trash off the street stories of the day 3/4/12

Today was a beautiful sunny Sunday in  Japantown, San Fran, day 2 of the Giants spring training schedule in Scottsdale, a split squad game against the D-Backs and Brewers,
and I could feel the vibrant mood of the people who were milling about early in the morning around Buchanan Street near Benkyodo coffee shop and JCCCNC...there was an energy and happiness due to the weather, i thought...so  with my new Tool Belt equipped with 2 pik sticks, paper trash bags and extra gloves I was out on the streets to pick it up...

it started out pretty normal, with the usual coffee cups and lids, cigarette butts boxes and wrappers out there..as I walked and picked, I lost my thoughts and fell into a sort of meditation...

the picking of trash became secondary, I began to reflect on past days events and outcomes...what did I do, and could I have done things differently?  Am I getting enough rest and eating right...enough exercise...those kinds of things...

The paper bag I was carrying began to get full, newspaper advertisements, flyers, aluminum cans, lots of butts, some random blue baggies with surprises inside...that sort of thing...

Then things started to heat up...

I met Roy, I met Nathan, I met Alberto...

Let's go back to Roy.
THis was the most interesting of the three street encounters...he told me about the demolition of Japantown Bowl, Clint Eastwood filming Dirty Harry movies close to where we were standing, and about the bus stop that was once at the corner where trees and their roots took over, and hand to be cut down. I got an unexpected history lesson of the area...

  He was wearing an orange, black and grey sweatshirt that looked very Giants-like...but in fact it wasn't about the SF Giants...in fact, it said DPW in bright orangy letters in the middle of  an expansive exaggerated golden gate bridge...he asked me what i was up to...am I with the city volunteer group? he asked... I said I was just a guy in the neighborhood...I live over there, pointing across the street to the building I live in....and handing him my Talkin' Trash with Ray & Dave card..

I said, I'm Ray...
he said I'm Roy...
we shook hands
and then he said, want some signs to post up so dog owners will know to clean up their  dog's poo?,
as he gave me 3 of them,
  and looked again at the card I gave him,
 so, if you're Ray, where's Dave?