Why The Garbage Truck Makes Me Smile

Our garbage truck comes on Tuesday mornings and my husband and I start to chuckle when we hear it.  Why?  We have fond memories of how important the garbage truck was to our son when he was younger.  Just this morning we were telling him the story again.  Our son thinks it's funny, but he has no memories of any of it.  I thought I would go ahead and share the memory with you today.

This pic of son and me was taken over 6 years ago  - just picture him a little younger and smaller for this story!

When our son was young, probably 2-3 years old, he was completely fascinated by the garbage trucks that would come and mechanically lift the can up over the truck and shake to dump out the garbage.  You have to admit, it is pretty cool - especially for a young boy.

We lived in a 2-story condo at the time with the bedrooms upstairs.  Our son's bedroom window faced the back where the garbage truck would come through quite early in the morning once a week.  He was too small to see out the window and there was't anything around for him to climb up on (because it's not a good idea to give a busy youngster easy access to a second-story window), so the only way he could see the garbage truck when it came was if hubs or I lifted him up to the window to watch.

We are not a family of early-risers, so the usual scenario was that we were sound asleep as the garbage truck approached.  My son would hear the rumbling of the approach in his sleep, jump up, and begin yelling/crying in a panicked voice, "GARBAGE TRUCK, GARBAGE TRUCK!!!!"  Hubs and I would awake in a fright!  Then one of us - usually hubs 'cause he's faster - would run full-speed, almost tripping, down the hall to our son's room, scoop him up and hold him up to see out the window.  He would happily watch the garbage truck do it's thing and wave to the garbage man who would occasionally wave back!  Then all was calm and right with the world.

If our son didn't wake in time or we didn't make it to his room in time, we had a very upset little boy to deal with.  It was never easy trying to assure him that the garbage truck really would come back and a few days wasn't too long to wait - LOL!  We certainly didn't believe in giving in to our son's every whim, but had decided that it was worth our crazy morning once a week to give our son 60 seconds of pure joy from something so simple!

That's why I smile every time I see the garbage truck come by!  May I suggest having your kids give the garbage man a wave the next time they see him?  I'm sure it helps brighten the day a little.

I've added this to Your Life, Your Blog at Real Life.  Stop over there to read others' favorite posts and link up your own!

What's making you smile today?