cleaning the pavement

august 19 2007

When I was young the streets in town were neat and clean.
Each week a car came with a man with a huge broom, who swept the borders of the pavement free from leaves and other dirt.

Later it was a car with a kind of turning horizontal circular broom.
It made a tremendous noise...on the monday morning,, and the guy driving it made such brisk turns that everyone with a car speeded outside to get it out of the way.

We, and everyone else who "owned a front door" felt the responsibility to keep the pavement clean and the part of stree in front of the house.

I loved to remove the snow, and often I had cleaned the whole pavement of the street before the men came outside to do their job.
Well, they did my part of the street in return, and that was OK with me.

The busdrivers often stopped to thank us, and so did the old people.

And now??

Now it seems no one really cares.