Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 6, Issue 11, November 2002

Copyright 2002 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article and photos below in your research. Be sure to quote the Seattle Sun as your source.

STAN'S LOOKOUT

The interesting things you find when you pick up street litter

BY STAN STAPP

WHEN I WAS A KID, bored with life in the house, my mother would suggest: "Stanley, get some fresh air, put on something warm and run around the block!"

The other day, surprisingly (some 70 years later) my wife made the same suggestion. And even more surprisingly I took her up on it.

Part of my decision, as I walked around, was based on having a free hand to neaten up the neighborhood by picking up street litter and, as usual, reading every piece without Dorothy groaning about my habits.

After all, I don't complain about her practice of looking at every flower or bush on the way and pronouncing a complicated Big Word Name for it.

Like Taraxacum officinale for that pernicios lawn weed, dandelion.

I became so interested with the myriad of material I was finding that I not only walked around several blocks of the Wedgwood neighborhood the first day, but followed up with a few more the next day.

I was beginning to think of litter as archaeological material and myself as an archeologist making a scientific study of historic or prehistoric peoples and their cultures by analysis of their artifacts, inscriptions, monuments, and other remains.

Now, in no particular order, here is what I learned, more or less grouped by the containers:

RECEIPTS: QFC for $39.23, "Advantage Savings You saved 60 cents!" ... Shell station on 35th NE, gas purchase, $18.50 ... Safeway purchase of Crunchy Cheerios, Mozzarella Sticks, and Nil Brnd Bil. (Eh?) ... Purchase from Jackson Street firm for $29.95 (a neighbor of mine) ... Visa payment for $45.37 to Marlene's Market-Deli on Federal Way (payer known to me.) ... Edmonds ferry.

LETTERS: Two girls discuss boys (all names withheld). "If you say that you don't like him I believe you. He is cute but he's a stupid substitute. Are you sure you're not a lesbian? I have liked him since kindergarten."

Reply: "He, He, He, He, He, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha. Etc. P.S. Write back a long, long note."

ENVELOPES: Lipton Tea ... and a Benzalkonium Chloride Towlette.

BOTTLES: Broken wine bottle ... Full Sail Brewing top ... Bottle cork.

TORN OUT: Cartoon of P-I's Dinette Set ... Note from Climara, estradiol transdermal system (whatever that is?) ... Unico Properties with three names and phone numbers ... Note to local resident, advising "Do Not Use" nine times.

CIGARETTES: Empty package of Camels ... Empty package of Marlboros ... One long cigarette ... Matchbook advertising Winston New Blend Evo Flask.

CUPS: Seattle's Best Coffee ... Coca Cola, from Dick's Hamburgers on N 45th.

PACKAGES: Quaker Chewy Granola Bars ... Nestle Nerds Rope ... Almond Joy Chocolate Bar ... Jolly Rancher Apple Bar and Grape Bar ... Precious Stringsters, all natural Mozzarella string cheese ... Fruit Chews ... Stove Top Easy Pouch! for seasoning and stuffing crumbs together.

BIG 'PUNKIN' PATCH: In Karl Ruff's parking strip. Outgrew 4 x 4-foot box. At peak of season measured 20 x 12 feet with seven pumpkins, largest being 21 inches in diameter.

ADVICE OF DEPOSIT SLIP: For woman on 32nd NE, her net pay being $1,814.89.

NOTES: From one doctor to another, planning to meet at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center ... Another from a car parker to the meter man (or maid) informing him (or her) that it was out of order ... another note reminding a Realtor to bring home some milk, cottage cheese, Ensure, and Tums.

SIGNS: On a telephone pole at 26th NE and NE 60th, reading "JUSTICE FOR ALL," Sikh, Muslim, East-African, Arab-American, Japanese-American, South Asian, and Latino. Testify of their experiences with harassment, hate crimes, bias, discrimination. Meeting at the Town Hall ... Two Missing Cat signs, one since Christmas ... Several signs on Eckstein Middle School campus that read: "No Pets Allowed on School Grounds. No Dogs, Cats, or Pot-Bellied Pigs." (There actually had been a Pot-Bellied Pig in Wedgwood several years ago seen from time-to-time walking around the neighborhood with his lady owner.)

HORSE CHESTNUT TREE: A member of the Hippocastanum family (two can play at this game) in which several creatures were feeding on those shiny brown nutlike seeds, pelting me with a couple as I passed under its branches.

REAL FRUIT: Several red apples, one green one.

PHOTO:

Of elderly couple in the 6500 block of 30th NE, in front of home, dated May 1962.

CLOTHES HANGER:

Golden, broken.

BAGS: Three Zip Locks, same size, different locations ... plastic bag from The Bakery Counter.

METRO BUS SCHEDULE: Route 64.

NAPKIN: Wrinkled, from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts ... A regular blue napkin.

EMPTY BOX: Originally containing 6 quiescently (inactive) Root Beer Float Bars ... Fujicolor Supereia camera film.

SKETCH: Of food chain pyramid on ruled notebook paper. Starting at the bottom and working up: Grains, vegetables, fruits, meat, dirt, others.

BUSINESS CARD: "Save 20%," on $51.99.

CANS: CapriSun Tropical Punch Cooler ... Coca-Cola smashed flat ... Mashed Bud Light Beer can.

POLO SOCK, one gray one.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS: Evidence of a Safeway Large Cheese Pizza ... Electric Wire, 8-inch in length ... 50 Extra Non-Aspirin Acetaminophen PM Caplets ... One red ballpoint pen, not much life remaining ... Two cardboard centers, one for paper towels, one for toilet paper ... Piece of wood, 5 x 2 inches ... Three crow feathers, widely dispersed ... a piece of Duct Tape 3-inches long.

***

Stan Stapp is the retired publisher of the old Outlook, a family-owned community newspaper that covered North Seattle for several decades until its sale in 1974. He and his wife, Dorothy, currently live in the Wedgwood neighborhood. Email him at stanstapp@attbi.com