CANS, CURVES, AND CRUISES

Image Gallery

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Are you short of vacation cash . . . in need of exercise . . . bothered by a litter-strewn environment? Well, here's how one couple came up with a pleasurable solution to that trio of problems.

As two active, involved senior-citizen college professors, we had concerns but few real personal problems, until our love of cruise ships brought us to a crisis. We returned from a seagoing vacation and discovered that we had two causes for alarm. First, we looked in our mirrors and saw curves—bountiful ones—in all the wrong places. Then we examined our bankbooks and saw disaster . . . a two-digit balance to cope with two-digit inflation.

"First things first," we said. "Our employers won't approve of our showing up to teach with seams that aren't and zippers that won't." For a while, however, we couldn't decide how to shed those unwanted inches. The thought of tackling strict diets brought on immediate withdrawal symptoms! And jogging would probably be a bit much for our pampered muscles at first. But walking! Aha! Now that was an acceptable solution. We like the out-of-doors, and figured we could work a one-hour daily ramble into our busy schedules.

A FORTUNE AT OUR FEET

So off we went, and while we paced, we alternately discussed our financial situation and deplored the litterbugs who had sullied the landscape around us!

However, it wasn't until our local media began running appeals for recycling efforts that light bulbs lit over our heads. Eureka! Those cans littering the highways could—we realized—be a source of cash! So, carrying leakproof plastic sacks and armed with handcarved walking sticks with nails in the ends, we marched out to clean up the environment . . . save energy . . . eliminate our bulges . . . and increase our bank balance a bit, to boot!

Lo and behold, on our first trip out we filled those bags in 30 minutes! Four days later, we loaded up the van and went to the recycling center. We came back with a check for $4.50 . . . with half our load still in the vehicle . . . and with our first lesson well-learned: All cans are not aluminum. The recycling center accepted only unseamed containers with extruded bottoms. Our second lesson had to do with bulk . . . we found it impossible to carry as many cans as we could pick up in an hour until we learned to smash them. (Luckily, many of the containers are already flattened by cars or hand-crushed by macho—or perhaps mocha—drinkers.)

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print