On Snow and Junk...

This photo, taken at 3:30 pm today, is no longer accurate. Instead, the ground is now white. So it is snowing in Boone. Yawn. I'm bit weary of snow these days....
I would rather talk trash. Yes, trash. Because early this morning my youngest and I picked up several bagfuls at Watauga High School. Oh please. Don't applaud us for our dogooder-ness because frankly our hearts were not filled with joy and fuzziness as we anticipated the work. Youngest volunteered only because she needed to fill in one more blank in the whole college application circus. I did it because Youngest couldn't sell any other teenagers on the idea of helping her pick of their own litter on a Sunday morning. The town of Boone's 'Big Sweep' began today and it is the only day she has free all week. The nice lady with the town of Boone gave her bright orange trash bags, gloves and an orange safety vest. The bags and gloves were helpful. The orange vest is most definitely on Youngest's list of fashion 'don'ts.'
Our mission began in the flower beds near the entrance of the school. There weren't many flowers blooming, but man there sure was a proliferation of gum wads. I was concerned Youngest might not hang through the tedium of fingering 'abc' gum. Her sense of humor was clearly absent and was mixed with the abject horror someone might witness her being good.  The vision of a Bud Light can stuck in a bush right next to the 'Visitors' parking area did lightened her mood somewhat.
She held it up in triumph and said in a voice dripping with sarcasm,  "Go Watauga."
As the Sacred Heart Ministries church service let out, she started to panic. She gathered her orange sack and ran towards the upper parking lot.
"I don't want anyone to see me doing this," she said.
I followed her.
It was there we discovered the mother-load of all high school sins/trash over in a ravine between the lot and the school's main drive.

The area is steep and thick with rhododendron so the usual clean up crews avoid the area. Here, wads of gum are replaced by cigarette butts and bottle caps. The task was tedium mixed with back ache.
A few of the other items we found:

1. A coke bottle promoting the opening of 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2. Many more beer cans and bottles. Someone sure does drink a bunch of Michelob Light
3. 2 gallon containers filled with chunky, sour milk
4. A stripped out stereo speaker
5. A perfectly good trailer tire
6. A moldy ASU t-shirt
7. A blank check. Whoot! Just kidding. We'll turn it in...
8. A pair of Nike shorts sporting a superb coat of rust. Hmm?
9. A trash bag filled with empty liquor, wine, and beer bottles. Perhaps the hidden trash stash of a weekend party?
   
10. Several bottles filled with a substance resembling spit and chewing tobacco.
11. A tampon. It remains at WHS. We both refused to pick it up.
12. A steel trash can.

The work was hard and grubby, but became mildly amusing as we discovered each little high school treasure and speculate about the kids who left them behind.
Wanna see more?

I realize this doesn't look like much, but wads of gum and cigarette butts don't take up much space....
And the steel trash can is almost filled with litter...