Litter Day

   When I was attending Elementary school in San Diego there was one day a year wherein we (all the kids who attended the school) had to carry a trash bag (big or small, didn't matter) with us as we walked to school and pick up litter along the route we took to get to the school.

   It was Earth Day I believe, when we had to do this. When we arrived at the school there were areas designated for all of us to deposit our bags of trash. If memory serves me correctly (50-50 chance of that) the trash piles were organized by whatever class you were in and the class that collected the most trash received some special recognition from the school Principal during an Earth Day ceremony.

   The other day I mentioned this to several of my co-workers, asking if they too had to do something like that. "You had to walk to school?" was the most common response I got, followed closely by "No, we didn't have to pick up trash when we were forced to walk to school when the bus broke down and Mom wouldn't get up to drive us to school."

   Was this just a California thing? Was it due to a large number of hippy-dippy teachers at the Elementary school I attended?

   Another mystery to ponder.