There are many things that irk me.
People putting their feet up on furniture, smokers, and those yakking on their phones in public.
Caregivers Tweeting rather than giving care, along with dog walkers who sit instead of walk.
Our prevailing tactless, Teflon coated medical community who’d prefer a round of golf over their Hippocratic Oath.
Abandoned animals, wives who ignore their husbands, and the big kahuna of them all, littering.
You’ll often see me early in the morning picking up cans and potato chip bags, candy wrappers and various parts of the newspaper. I just can’t help myself. I used to cause scenes whenever I saw someone litter, but now let them see me pick it up, hoping it will embarrass them enough to think the next time. And I learned this gentle tactic from a woman I knew named, Beth Sutherland Nelson.
I wrote OUCH back in 2011 to remember her. It’s one of my favorite essays, not because I wrote it, but because of her…
When I was 18, I shared a beach house with a bunch of wonderful people in Lordship, Connecticut. There was one other woman living there by the name of Beth.
Beth eventually married Mickey and they had three kids, her youngest being a girl. She taught Amy who was 3, anytime she saw someone litter to say OUCH, on behalf of the earth. Witnessing this, if you were lucky enough, melted your heart. This wee creature stunning people into picking up what they carelessly threw away.
Beth died of breast cancer fifteen years ago, but her sweet, gentle parenting still resonates.
I live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and the conspicuous consumption, especially where children are concerned, is off the charts. Yesterday I met a 3 year-old with his own iPhone so he could call his grandparents in Miami. It made me a little sad not to mention envious since he was also wearing Gucci loafers the size of Twinkies.
Children aren’t really children anymore. They’re just short adults forced to answer to taller ones. I have nothing against smart Upper East Side kids fortunate enough to attend the best schools, learning things that make my head spin. I only wish they could still be kids a little while longer.
The biggest parental responsibility that seems absent, is good old-fashioned common courtesy.
Today when I saw a five year-old toss his empty M&M’s bag on the sidewalk, I watched the parents who saw it too, ignoring it as if littering was perfectly acceptable.
Parents should be required to take a test. You can’t man anything even remotely dangerous without a license, so should raising kids be any different?
No, I didn’t lecture nor show pique oddly enough, but when passing them, I did pick it up and say, OUCH, on behalf of the earth.
God bless you Beth, wherever you are.
SB
Ouch indeed! It will all have to be paid for. There really isn’t anywhere else to go so, when we’ve destroyed this planet, we are all well and truly fucked.
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Good morning Mick. 😊
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…and good morning to you too Gorgeous.
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Well, since the planet is going to hell in a handbasket, the least a girl could do is her hair.
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Got to look good for Armagedon 😉
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One’s last curtain call
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Sorry Armageddon.
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You know, it’s not funny. It’s actually pretty scary. sigh
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It’s not funny but we have to keep our spirits up somehow. And it’s good to commune with you in the morning.
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Your my first conversation cyber or otherwise.
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SB,
Amen. Sister.
Imma start a list of the things that irk me as well. I should be done with it by the fall . . .
Littering would be on the list. In all its sinister forms. From Styrofoam cups in a park, to Government approved contaminated water to Twitter twits whose profane use of the site is for the birds (pun intended).
I love the OUCH method. In this age of shaming behind a computer screen, OUCH is a hands on approach that may actually work!
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Would love to hear your list. I shudder at the thought.
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Oh me God, woman. I just had to come up with a post on the topic after our exchanged. It hearkened me to a time when I used to do an “Annoyances” post.
I shudder right along with ya.
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So I’m here in a long work day haze hoping you wrote one. Will check in. 😊
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Brace yourself, LOL
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You’re funny. Lists encourage others to list, I have found. It’s like a morale cleansing. Feels great afterwards. 🙂
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It really does. I forgot how much. You are awwwright chica!
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I kinda like the name Chica. Maybe I’ll just drop the Susannah.
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Is this the part of the comment thread where we go into “Makeover!” . . like in an eighties B movie complete with three minute music montage?
If so,it’s gotta be Queen!
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Wish Freddie was available for consultation. Sigh
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He’d give us ten minutes when all we asked for was three . . .
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We won’t hear from Pauli no more.
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That strunz . . he sold out the old man.
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Mikey, lookie here. In case ya gotta cook for a dozen guys. Poetic license 🤨
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Ya start out with a little bit of oil, you fry some gahlic, then you trow in some tomatas and tomata paste, fry it and then shove in all ya sausage and ya meatballs. AND a little bit a wine . . .
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I loved Clemenza. He was my favorite character. Loved him at Connie’s wedding, how he danced. Didn’t matter he was fat. Richard Castellano was only 55 when he died in 1988. sigh
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He was an original. As was John Cazale, who died much too young as well.
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Ah Fredo. “Nothing happens to my brother while my mother is still alive”. Sigh
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Well yanno SB, he got stepped ovah. And it wasn’t like he was dumb . . he was schmat!
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It must have been hard being in Sonny’s shadow then Michael’s. I mean really. Takes sibling rivalry to new heights.
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I think Sonny was bad enough, seeing as how he wasn’t the greatest Boss. But when little brother Mikey took the reins? Nice college boy didn’t want to get mixed up in the family business? That was too much for Fredo . . .
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I know. I understood perfectly his relationship with Moe Green. Approval, Freddie only wanted approval, even though he was bangin cocktail waitresses 3? 4? at a time…:)
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And then Michael came to town and harshed Fredo’s mellow. I mean, didn’t he know? You don’t talk to Moe Green like THAT!
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He did slap his brother in public after all. Michael then kept an eye on him. Wink Wink
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Nicely played SB!
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Did you know…he lived with Meryl Streep at the time of his sad, early departure? Trivia 101
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I did. She was there with him to the very end.
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😪
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In an alternate universe, they would have been THE Oscar couple. In his short time, Cazale was in a ton of classic movies.
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Dog Day Afternoon was my favorite.
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Great movie. Not on cable nearly enough. Funny how it works with certain movies.
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I subbed at a middle school last week where a fifth grader spent an entire period mentioning his Gucci socks. Drove me nuts as he paraded his parent’s wealth.
As for littering, each spring we used to take our four kids around the block (a rural block is a large animal) to pick up the litter. There were never tons, but we usually managed to fill a large garbage bag. We did this until they moved out.
The sheer ignorance of those parents toward their child’s public littering really gets my dander up.I applaud your method of silent yet visually scolding the litterers. Reminds me of something MLK might have employed.
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I find it so upsetting to see. Love the word dander. I saw your long beautiful tresses standing straight up.
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Many years ago (and based on prices at the time), he would commonly say … It doesn’t cost that much more to go first class …. but he actually applied it to behaviors … it’s not that much more effort to carry it to the trashcan. Oh the behaviors we can think of with that mantra.
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You said it Frank.
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We have many of the same irritations, Susannah.
I have to say I just don’t understand how people are STILL using the Earth as a big garbage can. It would never even occur to me to throw a wrapper on the ground. Or allow my boys to.
And you’re right. Children don’t have time too be children. Or learn coping skills on the
playground… but that’s a whole ‘mother discussion!
OUCH is a good one… going to try it myself…
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I’m tired of seeing kids playing with iPads when they could be enjoying a book. Recently a cab driver stopped at the corner I was about to cross, got out to put his garbage in the trash can. I smiled all the way home. What a guy. 😊
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Drives me nuts. And they start so friggen young (course that’s the parents’ fault)
And wow to the cab driver!
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Integrity in a yellow taxi. We’ll take it any way it comes. 🙂
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Who’d a thunk? And yes. Each one counts
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I don’t know. But it would be easy to dump your coffee cup and Bagel crumbs out the window zoomin’for a fare.
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This is true and there are those who still do…
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As I sit here reading with my feet on the coffee table (hey, it was made for feet!), I cringed at the over-privileged child and careless littering. I like Beth’s approach – both to littering and child-rearing.
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Yes but it’s your own coffee table. I’m talking about feet on tables that don’t belong to them. Like at the library. Beth was a wonderful mom.
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That sounds like a good practice. I do understand this one. I don’t recycle trash or separate it much, but I try hard to make certain my trash goes in the bin. I, honestly, don’t see a lot of littering around here, but I know it happens. My children were taught to toss. My daughter took it to heart and has like 4 separate containers for trash and has little baggies for their dogs’ doo.
Scott
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Sounds good. You teach by demonstration.
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Yep, kinda always have.
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A very special trait to have.
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Thanks, my students thought so. They trusted me, cause I trusted them. I taught the ones who hated school, teachers, and learning. We did okay.
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I would have favored those who on paper didn’t stand a chance. Would have felt a kinship.
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My entire classes consisted of those on paper who didn’t stand a chance. Now, about 10 years since teaching, I have one student who plays Words with Friends with me and wins the majority of the time!
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I loved Beth’s approach to littering.
People in our rural neighborhood toss things in ditches. It makes my blood boil to see the mess. I have an idea that might be fun. There is a stretch of road above a deep ravine that gets most of the litter. I wish I could clean it all up, and then I’d stretch a garbage bag on a large hoop and attach it to a tree. Shawn would probably paint a sign for it, inviting litterers to toss their mess in the hoop. Who could resist such a target? …. Well, no, I don’t really want to know.
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What a great idea? When will you start? Will it take long to make? I love this. Maybe Shawn can patent it and you can put it on Amazon. I can see it now. You’ll make a fortune. 💰
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I love your enthusiasm! There is no way I could get out of that steep ravine, so I won’t be starting any time soon.
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But it’s in the works. We scientists Anne, need time to ruminate. I’m already thinking what shade of green the bag could be. Kelly, forest? How bout celadon? A lime perhaps. 😊
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The garbage bag would need to be visible in a place with lots of shade.
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Yes. And maybe as an added bonus, if you order now, we can send a complimentary tote bag, in green of course.
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Lol!
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I’m going to copy your friend Beth. Thanks for the idea. Peace
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Beth is somewhere smiling. 😴
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