The other day, I was driving around and I saw a long-white-haired old woman carrying a hub cap and what looked like several small bags of garbage. Around here, this is usually an indication of some kind of pathology, and is accompanied by a shopping cart, inappropriate stocking-cap hat in the middle of summer, a horrendous smell, or all of the above.
Such was not the case this time.
This woman appeared to have been picking up trash on the side of the road for the purposes of actually disposing of it, rather than using it to pad her nest.
She had the very confident air of a woman who burned her bra in the 60s and who has been wearing hemp clothing and eating granola and hydroponic vegetables ever since.
That description is not intended to be disparaging. On the contrary, I wanted to roll down my window and call out to her “you go girl” and thank her for making my community more beautiful by removing some of the unsightly and unsanitary garbage that literally litters the streets around here. Since I was not only moving but actually driving, I wouldn’t have had enough time to actually say all that, and I would have come across like a dick (“thanks a lot“) or like a maniac (“thankyouforpickingupallthattrashtheroadlooksmuchbetterduetoyourefforts”). So, I chose to be silent, and I have to say, I feel bad. I should have said something.
Hopefully, this woman will one day search for “hippie lady” in an effort to locate interesting stories about her online and will come across this post, and she’ll see that at least one person noticed her efforts, and appreciated them.
Thanks, old hippie lady. Seriously.
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