Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 07/31/18 > A little rear view mirror time …. looking back to 1981.

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The other day @moderndayhippie did a story over on his blog that had to do with being the person when it comes to changing things for the better. His story was about how there was just so much trash along the roadside on the route him and his lady walk their dogs so they decided to take a couple plastic bags with them and pick up some of the trash. I commend them for doing this, nice work. Here is a link to that story, so you can read it when you are done here. hippie's story link

I commented how people will throw trash in the bed of my pickup truck sometimes at night in hotel parking lots, not real frequently but it has happened enough times that now when I am on the road and staying overnight I will always take a look just to make sure there isn’t some that someone decided to leave for me to deal with.

Trash will blow out of the beds of trucks at highway speed and if the police see it happen you will sure get a ticket for littering, you can beg and plead all you want with the cop, but you will get the ticket. “Don’t Mess With Texas” means don’t trash the place up. So as we went back and forth with comments it reminded of the time back in Ocala, Florida when I was still in my early twenties and had gone over there for a week long horse show event.

Back then I had a one ton Chevy dually truck and a matching four horse trailer and I just so happened to have a couple pretty young ladies who also showed horses that would travel with me a lot. We had gone over to Florida for this show and the second day we were there Karen and Rachel had events in the afternoon, so they were spending most of the early afternoon getting their horses groomed and saddled out at the trailer. They didn’t need my help with anything so I went and watched the events in the main arena and visited with some folks that I knew were there.

Finding parking spots at these horse shows can be like trying to find a parking spot at the Best Buy on Black Friday so even though I wasn’t going to be pulling the trailer that day I did back the truck up under the front of the trailer so I didn’t have to search for a place to park closer to the arena.

I kept an eye on the schedule and when I saw that the girls class was 2 classes away from entering the arena I decided I would go check on them and make sure everything was good, I knew they would be over in the warm up arena and so I grabbed a beer from the concession stand and went over to check on them.

Everything was good with them but Karen wanted her other set of spurs from the trailer so I told just keep riding your horse down to get the edge off him and I bring your spurs back in a few minutes but I need to go take a leak first. So I headed off in the direction of the trailer and about the time I finished the last sip of beer I was passing the bed of my pickup truck so I just tossed the can in the bed and kept on walking towards the rest room which was about 100 feet away.

I no sooner got about five steps from the back of my truck, walking along the side of the trailer, and this woman started laying into me about throwing beer cans in people’s trucks. Her truck and trailer were parked right next to mine, but she had never seen me before, she had only seen Karen and Rachel at the trailer so she had no idea who I was.

I can remember her words like it was this morning, “You have a lot of damn nerve!” was her opening line and then it went into a tirade laced with quite a few cuss words that some sailors might even be a little leery of using in public in such a loud voice.

I had two things I needed to do and I really didn’t have time for this lady and so I hadn’t stopped walking yet but I did slow down just to hear her rant. She was probably in her late 30’s or early 40’s and I honestly didn’t care what she had to say, but when she called me a MFer that was the point where I stopped, turned around and started walking back towards her.

“Excuse me Mam, are you talking to me?” were the words that came out, although I wanted to say guzbuck off, but in just a matter of a couple seconds I decided to play her and I did. “You’re god damned right I’m talking to you, you have a lot of damn nerve throwing your beer can in that truck.” She went on for a good minute and a half just ripping me verbally and I couldn’t take it anymore and I started laughing at her.

“You act like it’s your truck, is that your truck?” I asked as I pointed at hers. She said it was and I figured it was since she was in between mine and hers and had been getting something out of her trailer. So, she wasn’t happy and now I really have to use the restroom and get Karen her spurs but I couldn’t help but string her along.

“Would it make you happy if I went and got that beer can out of the truck and threw it in yours?” I asked her.

“Of course it wouldn’t.” she said.

“Well, I thought you might be jealous that I didn’t throw it in your truck, so I could do that for you, you sure?” I said.

She started up again and I finally had to stop her, “Look Mam, I appreciate your concern, but seeing how this is my trailer and that is my truck I will throw any damn thing in either one of them that I want to.”

At first I didn’t think she believed me but I reached in my pocket and pulled the keys out, “would you like me to start it for you?”

Then came the apologies, which I didn’t have time for, I was nearly ready to pee all over myself from laughing and setting her up to make a total ass of herself. She had only seen the girls and she figured I was just some jack ass that had no respect for other people’s property, so she deserved the treatment I gave her.

I barely made it to the rest room and by the time I found Karen’s spurs in the trailer and got back over to the arena her class was just about to go in the ring. So there was no time to change her spurs, Karen wasn’t happy with me but after her class when I told her and Rachel the story she wasn’t as pissed off as she was prior to hearing it. She had gotten through her class and made it into the second go round and that was all that mattered. So I was off the hook on that, and her horse worked fine with the spurs she had on.

That lady was a piece of work to say the least, she said that she hated when people would throw cans in her bed of her truck and she just thought she was doing the right thing by speaking up when she saw someone doing the can tossing. The only problem is she didn’t bother to ask any questions and just laid into me with her verbal assault.

The proper way for her to have handled it would have been to say, “Excuse me, is that your truck young man?” and everything would have been fine. The only downside to that scenario would be that it would never have stuck with me all these years and I wouldn’t have the story to tell.

It was a good trip over to Florida and the entire time I was there I never once worried about anything happening to my truck and trailer while it was parked at the show grounds, since there was a pit-bull bitch watching out for my stuff for me.

Thanks for jogging my memory @moderndayhippie; I hadn’t thought of that in years and just being able to tell the story one more time has put another smile on my face.

I guess the lesson in all of this is that we all do need to do our part when it comes to trash and also with helping to look out for others as well, but it is never safe to assume anything and just taking the time to ask a question or two can make all the difference in the world on how things can turn out.

Until next time,
@sultnpapper