Litter in Skaneateles

Last night on the way home, along the side of Route 20, a pair of used latex gloves. They may still be there; I am not going to pick them up, not without tongs. In Austin Park, numerous corners from packages, among them a Quaker Oats snack and a giant Tootsie Roll; perhaps people think that although a bag or wrapper is made of foil, a corner of it must be biodegradable, by virtue of its size.

And this morning on the way to work, a very crisp, well cared-for pack of Camel Lights, with a Vermont tax stamp on the bottom, and this reminder: “A master-crafted blend of only the finest hand-picked Samsun & Izmir Turkish tobaccos with a robust domestic tobacco blend creates Camel’s distinctive flavor and world-class smoothness.” I checked, and Izmir is a variety of tobacco that grows closer to the Aegean Sea on Turkey’s western coast and Samsun grows closer to the Black Sea on Turkey’s northern coast. So you’re really getting two big bodies of water with every Camel, which seems like a pretty good deal, although I would raise a flag of caution with regards to the phrase, “robust domestic.” I’m not sure exactly what that means, in spite of what it’s meant to convey.

Among the littered items, some that are clearly lost: in Austin Park, one Top Flight XL 2 golf ball, “Pure Distance, More Carry;” on Route 20, one black and yellow glove, a Midwest “Landscaper.”

In Austin Park, a shiny foil lid from Borden’s Yogurt which made me inexplicably nostalgic for litter before foil, for paper, and Elsie the Cow, who married Elmer; she made a nice living selling cheese; he sold glue for the same company. Elsie even appeared in Little Men (1940) on the silver screen, linking her forever to RKO and Louisa May Alcott. Elsie was actually a big-eyed Jersey named “You’ll Do Lobelia,” who died in 1941, on her way to a personal appearance in New York City, after her truck was hit by another truck at a stop sign in Rahway, New Jersey. She was buried at the Walker-Gordon Dairy with a nice marker, but the dairy went out of business and a tract of homes was built on the site. They moved the marker, but not the remains of Elsie. We never met, but I miss that cow.

“It is a very queer thing, being ill, when you are not used to it. I suppose in the course of time, if one became really bed ridden, one would evolve ingenious methods of dealing with the difficulties of bed-life — one could have little nets everywhere, like in a wagon-lit, to keep things in and prevent them from getting lost, for at present everything either seems to fall on the floor or else become submerged under blankets and sheets. Also litter — what does one do about litter? My room is like Hampstead Heath after a Bank Holiday.”

– Vita Sackville-West in a letter to Virginia Woolf, August 22, 1929

But I’ve already found five Tootsie Roll wrappers and a Red Bull can, flattened by the energetic consumer.

On the walk to work, one Tootsie Roll wrapper, one old ChapStick, one new ChapStick wrapper, one mower-crafted fragment of a Gatorade label with the ‘e’ remaining on a green background, one tattered M&M’s bag inviting us to mms.com, and two wrappers from Brach’s StarBrites Spearmint mints.

In the stand of woods that lies between the Skaneateles Community Center and the American Legion, a shattered Byrne Dairy half gallon, plastic bottles for Coca-Cola, Mountain Dew Code Red, water. In the woods that border the Legion’s picnic area, a veritable time-line of trash from picnics of yore: Schmidt’s, Pabst, Old Milwaukee, many cans rusted beyond recognition, Adirondack soda in a selection of flavors, and the prize, a rusted gallon tin that once held oil. Another shoal of trash beckoned, but my jumbo clear trash bag was full. In Austin Park, the stars of tomorrow left it all on the soccer field, including a Gatorade All-Stars bottle, Vitamin Water bottle, Starburst Chews wrapper, H2O water bottle, punctured Capri Sun bag dripping yellow, cardboard wrapping from a pair of soccer socks; I love theme litter.

“When concern for economic and technological progress is not accompanied by concern for the balance of the ecosystem, our earth is inevitably exposed to serious environmental damage, with consequent harm to human beings. Blatant disrespect for the environment will continue as long as the earth and its potential are seen merely as objects of immediate use and consumption, to be manipulated by an unbridled desire for profit. It is the duty of Christians and of all who look to God as the Creator to protect the environment by restoring a sense of reverence for the whole of God’s creation… The protection of the environment is not only a technical question; it is also and above all an ethical issue. All have a moral duty to care for the environment, not only for their own good but also for the good of future generations.”

– Pope John Paul II

The darker mornings are making litter pickup more difficult, but the Tootsie Roll wrappers, white on the edges, still stand out, as do the Tootsie Roll Pops wrappers in bright orange and purple, the waste paper equivalent, perhaps, of autumn leaves.

My on-the-scene Austin Park observer reassures me that the park is now (9 a.m.) immaculate, having been de-littered by worthies with spiked sticks, hauling and filling huge clear trash bags, and by the arrival of the Village Vac-All, sort of a Zamboni for asphalt, which hoovered the parking lot. Only the gulls are left, picking up those stray morsels left behind. Thank you, Village of Skaneateles.