Friday, December 15, 2006
So Merry Christmas
Perhaps the greatest difference in Eastern US culture and Western may occur at this time every year. Both Easterners and Westerners relish in putting up holiday decorations, sending out cards, and finding gifts for loved ones. But only in the East do you have to "tip" your garbage man at holiday time. Tip the garbage man? you ask. And we are not talking in terms of cow tipping here, folks. That, I'd probably look forward to. No, here in the east it is required that you go running out to greet the sanitation folk to give them each a tip (20. or more is customary) to thank them and more importantly bribe them for doing their job. If you skip this tradition, the garbage man WILL have the last laugh. For instance, if you ever have a BBQ and you exceed the number of garbage bags you're allowed to put out on trash day because of all the paper plates, when you put the excess garbage at the curb, if there was no tip the holiday before, then they'll only take SOME of the garbage, leaving the rest of the bags in your front yard so that you catch a year's worth of stinkeye from your neighbors -- and all before 9 AM. Now I don't want to give the impression that I'm cheap. I mean, I am cheap -- but I don't want to give that impression. It's just that tipping seems to be getting out of hand. I can see tipping servers and delivery drivers -- especially when they go out of their way to give you special service. But these garbage men are pretty well paid. One of them lives across the street from my friend Misa. He has a nice house and he's home by 3 o'clock every day to pick up his kid (who happens to be in Emma's class) from school. So, I think based on the amount of taxes we pay that I should be able to dispose of an entire amusement park in front of my house if I want to... without having to tip the guy for doing his job -- one he's well paid for. But the garbage guys will have the last laugh (as you can tell I really think they will indeed be laughing at me -- but maybe that's because of my state of disarray and undress as I run out to meet them, or haul the garbage to the curb, or whatever.) I think they keep a "who tipped last year" chart in their delightful truck. So, I guess I'll remember the tip.
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10 comments:
This is a great post. As a garbage collector, we do appreciate the tips. It is not the easiest work in the world to collect between 10-12 tons of garbage each day.
I will say that this week we have had quite a few women waiting outside with the trash to say "thanks" and give us a tip, so the tradition is alive and well.
On a more interesting note we've had more requests this year than ever from women asking to press the lever to turn on the compactor than ever before. You'd be surprised at home many stop to watch it working - especially when furniture is going in..
You ever stop to watch that Denise?
Now the garbage men are home in time to read my blog? What next? Actually, Im really grateful for my garbage men. They've been quite helpful since the move.
:) I'm off today. You ever stop to watch the truck compact it all?
1 - it's a good thing you're nice to our garbage collectors.
2 - i'm glad the janitors on my floor don't read delicious animals.
I was told to do this and to tip the mailman when we bought our house. I said "They are CRAZY! Aren't they government employees isn't that illegal?" Guess not, You have to tip them at Christmas.
denise, you should take that garbage collector up on his offer...he sounds cute!!! i would LOVE to see that!
it's all yours Jenni...
What would you LOVE to see Jenni?
here is a true story...one year my sister-in-law in nj was looking outside her window early morning and let's out a scream,"the garbage man is peeing in our yard!!!!" my brother runs out to try and catch him, but was too late, lucky for them there was plenty of snow on the ground, so it wans't hard to determine that he in fact did urinate on their front yard." so, i am guessing they didn't leave a very good tip that year, or he wasn't going to get a tip after that!!
That's not cool. I thought you meant you'd love to the see the truck's compactor running.
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