Day 29: garbage collection day in quarantine in a small (Oregon) town
Today, Wednesday, is garbage (aka trash aka rubbish) collection day, at least in the area of the smallish (population approx 7,500) Oregon city where I live. Life in a small semi-rural town is definitely different than existence in a large bustling metropolitan area and, in this time of quarantine and Corona-virus-induced shelter-at-home lockdowns in so many parts of the world, I know what I experience in a tiny town is different than what I have read about. Starting in several cities in Italy and Spain where very severe lockdown-stay-at-home provisions have been a matter of life-and-death, literally, and have been strictly enforced - I read (and watched the viral videos) and was moved by the stories of spontaneous applause, in Italian and Spanish cities (and later the Big Apple), when the sanitation workers (a euphemism for many things, including garbagemen) came by on their nightly rounds. Those cooped up and penned up inside - wanted (and still want) to give public thanks and recognition to those who don't have the luxury of 'sheltering' - those who must get out there and keep performing exhaustive and often filthy societal tasks which probably put them in infection's way more often than those of us staying inside, (those of us 'sheltering' at 'home', words which have so many meanings). So---
So, yeah, today was garbage pickup day in my town. The garbage-persons drive by every Wednesday morning, in their truck, to pick up (or empty) the trash bins, carts or receptacles one leaves out for them. In a real sense, the garbage persons are 'forgotten' or 'invsible' people of society - those whose labors we depend upon, but, we really never see....and almost never look at. As a related sidenote, Peter Turnley has been documenting many of them in his current ongoing (and truly extraordinary) series of documentary photographs over the last month (check his feed on Instagram, @PeterTurnley, for some remarkable images, and even more remarkable stories). But--
But here in a small southern Oregon town, it hit me - I depend on my faceless sanitation workers just as much as the folks in NYC or London or Mexico City or Tokyo do - and I never recognize them, or even say thank you.
This morning, I decided to try to do something, in my own small way, to change that. And left a present, atop my trash can, out on the street, awaiting its morning sanitation pickup. Here it is---
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For the rest of the story - and a few more pictures - look in the Outtakes & Alternatives thread, where I will post it-slash-them, shortly.
Moral of the story (not that the story or any story needs a moral, because it doesn't, not really): photographers are supposed to see things in different ways...but it astounds me how little I allow myself to see, all too often. Sigh.