Hello, Hello, Hello

Is there anybody in there?  

Just nod if you can hear me

Is there anyone at home?

Pink Floyd had no way of knowing that one day we'd ALL be home when it recorded Comfortably Numb.  But that's not what the song is about really.  And this post isn't really about Pink Floyd other than that the band's music was on my playlist during my late morning loop.  If you got here via Twitter ( https://twitter.com/gstevegeo  ) you've already seen a sample of sights along the way today.

For many years I ran on the roads of Boston and communities south and west of the city.  My focus was always on my run, my goals, the temperature, or my running partners and the surroundings were "just there."  I ran in dozens of remote areas to avoid people, dogs and traffic but I listened more than I looked about.  As anybody who knows me is well aware, the running ceased several years ago and any exercise I've done has been done at home with the exception of riding a bike which like running doesn't provide a great opportunity to really view your surroundings closely.  Recently, with a need to fill a couple of hours each day I've taken to walking.  Walking, for me, is not entirely fun.  The pace is slow, there is little exertion, and after decades of running, well it doesn't measure up.  But I've run, or walked, out of options.  There is one more troubling thing about walking.  You see EVERYTHING around you. And I have seen some very ugly things these past weeks.  And I'm not referring to the Smiling Stone Face Guy I posted on Twitter.  There are a million stories out there.  I've walked the same 5 mile loop the past three days and earlier posted some pictures of mile markers along the way.  But each day I took note of my whereabouts . . . houses I passed, the wooded areas along the route, the parked cars, businesses sitting dormant.  There really is a lot to see and not all of it is pretty.  But today my focus is on one little problem which can best be summed up in the picture below.

When I got home from my walk I decided to go a bit further from my house to a point about one-half a mile away along Lincoln Street in Abington.  On that walk I saw 38, yes 38 of those nip bottles either on the street, on the sidewalk or in people's front yards.  On my earlier 5 mile loop I saw hundreds of them.  Fireball, McGillicuddy, Jägermeister, Smirnoff, Jack Daniels . . . hundreds.  In two specific spots I saw about a dozen which appeared to have been thrown or placed in unison along Union Street in South Weymouth.  Did I say ONE, LITTLE problem?  I've got several big problems with what I'm seeing.  First, it is painfully obvious these small liquor bottles are consumed by drivers who callously toss the empties from their moving car to avoid having an open container in their possession.  Second, this trash is literally piling up everywhere.  

I haven't been in a liquor store in years, but I can recall that at many of the check out counters the small "nip" bottles are available for purchase at bargain prices, $1.00 or less.  Customers, stopping in on their way home to buy something for when they get arrive are literally faced with the temptation, a marketing scam, to add into their purchase, "one, or two, for the road."  That is just where many of them end up.  I'm not trying to generate enthusiasm for a temperance movement, and frankly, although I choose not to drink, I couldn't care less about adults who do . . . in moderation at appropriate places.  But drink at home, and leave your trash there as well.

All of which brings me to this.  And yes, I know this is a cross country blog and its primary target is young athletes, but I can assure you that the kids I know have little patience or sympathy with drinking and driving OR dumping containers on the sidewalks and roads they train on.  I have a community service commitment in my position as a high school coach.  Its not a WH thing, but something every high school participates in.  In the absence of an athletic season, I feel I still have a commitment.  So this week I am writing letters to South Shore Police Chiefs and to local and statewide politicians regarding what I've seen, my concerns (which include OUI), and requesting that (a) sale of nip bottles be stopped, or at a minimum these products be placed in inconspicuous areas within the store, and (b) that deposits on these bottles be required in an amount sufficient to either substantially reduce the numbers of containers tossed onto our streets, or provide the funding necessary for their cleanup.

Maybe this isn't the forum for this discussion, but lest you think I've become "comfortably numb", I'm still out here.  No, not running, but walking . . . and watching every step of the way. 

Hoping to see you (and not the trash) on the road . . . very soon.