E467 NYC Garbage Man

55:56You know, some guys would, you know, hang around, play cards. Some others were, you know, doing what they were doing. Yeah. Enjoying their lives. But, uh, but yeah, it just wasn't, you know, to rush and run around. But that's what I did. when i went to stand out i was working with a guy who ran mile like marathons on weekends wow dude my buddy eric he's like dude we were running like i did probably three four miles easy every day running so you're cruising then pull this mic down just a little lower it yeah i'm like running like just running on the side of a truck like just running house to house so it was pretty athletic at that time yeah when you had the when the trucks had the three steps on it was pretty athletic no when they had when they took the steps off you know oh then you got to run alongside of it yeah then we were running along you know more guys were getting a little healthier yeah it's not the most healthy job really yeah lunch always that lunch always came with like dessert oh yeah like you know for what you know a hoagie and then add on some donuts oh yeah coffee get you a little fucking cut a cheesecake tiramisu around the fucking holidays in memory of fucking big Carlos or whatever yeah I feel that man damn well that's like New Orleans I think New Jersey and New Orleans have always been very similar I think some of like I bet probably stat on some of that accent you also hear in New Orleans that people like to fucking have a meal it's important you know people have a beer at lunch a lot of times if they only have two or children or less you know you get like a lot of you know it's part of it's a little bit more cultural to be eaten you know so you guys would get done you guys would go eat so you guys are getting paid for the full day you got a couple of hours you get done so you must have been enjoying that yeah it was good it was sit-down time like you said you're getting paid for the eight hours but there were guys that stayed out there all day they didn't mind it they you know on those hot days or the cold days they didn't mind that they stayed out there and do you have to wear a shirt the whole time or what is the you have people doing shirtless or not there was some guys that wore some you know questionable stuff oh yeah but like before i got on like in 96 like all the rules changed they went to the federal license like before that prior you didn't need a cdl to drive the trucks wait you didn't need a you didn't need a commercial driver's license to drive a sanitation until yep up until 96 so those guys were partying those guys were partying i heard some stories so you could you You could drive a Ford Escort and then drive a garbage truck.

58:27Yeah, exactly. That guy's like a Mini Cooper. They'll come in in a Mini Cooper and then jump in the garbage truck. I could do this. A maximum Cooper, bro. That's fucking insane. So, yeah, then they went to the federal license. So now it means everybody's got to get drug tested, you know, random drug tests, everything. 96, that started. Yeah. And the partying here and there. Some guys just didn't care. So they still went for it. Would some guys just drink on the job? Was there any partying on the job? I had guys, you know, one of my best guys, you know, God rest his soul, like literally out the gate, 6 a.m.

59:04Hey, kids, stop over here. Run into the store, come out, two tall boys. Oh, yeah. You know, and they did the routes where every half hour there was a deli. Him and his partner. So if I filled in with him for his partner, like literally every time it was a half hour up, there was a different deli. oh so they got a cheek full of mortadella and two beers huh run in praise god brother praise god yeah no guys enjoyed themselves yeah that sounds nice that sounds like it should be you know before they started fucking everything in america is a penny pinching fucking fiasco now nobody can have a fucking cheek full of strong cheese and two fucking uh bush lights you know just to get through the work day oh you know there was one dude that dude he was purple at one point why What happened to him?

59:51He was just drinking. Oh, drinking that much? Dude, his skin was awful. Some people. I don't even know if he's alive anymore. He's not. I'll tell you. It's a question. That guy ain't alive, dude. Look, after Purple, it just fucking, he turned into a BLM activist. It's a fucking rap after that. Right in the ground. Oh, man. And what about, was a lot of uppers? Because it seems like people would be on Adderall. People would be on cocaine. You know, people would be, you know, like was there anybody that could do that kind of lifestyle oh there were guys that party like that yeah you know there was one guy like right out of the 70s my first day in stat now so let's talk about this day like the other one not as bad this guy said like bandana on 70s glasses right out of hippie central yeah oh you're with me i'm like all right cool now i'm in staten island first day i'm like what the hell's going on here once again they don't know who i am so they shove you with this guy he's like all right kid you go up and drive first i'll stay in the back so i'm like all right so i'm driving the route i don't know i live in satan allen still didn't know streets wow you know so i'm just driving around yeah and i'm like it's that smell dude's hanging on the back living his dream just toking away getting high huh and then like half hour goodbye all right kid now you go out i'll let you know when i'm ready wow i'm still smell i'm like but some guys did it and it It was a daily thing.

1:01:15Pull up a picture of Stevie Starlight if you can. See if this guy looks anything like this gentleman or not. But some guys just couldn't stop, man. Look like this guy a little bit. Yeah Nah not that crazy a hair Yeah, Steve's a... Like bandana across his head. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know. I know what you're talking about. Cookies, like circle glasses. Yeah, yeah. Some guy who's fucking... He listens to Springsteen, but he don't admit it, huh? Yeah, probably in the closet. Yeah, closet at Springsteen. Definitely not telling people about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know. Yeah, once you get into Staten Island, things change then, because it's more like family housing and stuff, right?

1:01:59Exactly. And what is that like? Does it almost feel like a lot easier? does it not feel like the front lines of trash because i feel like in the city you're on the fucking front lines you're right there it's coming out of the chute you're fucking you know you got guys catching shit in their beard and shit but out in this out in the in the suburbs it feels like it would be a little bit easier is it or not and listen when you get to the suburbs now it turns into now you're dealing with homeowners like when you were in the buildings you were in the buildings you had you didn't they didn't care yeah you never saw them you know never saw people it's not like hey i'm i'm from 4f yeah you know you're an idiot like they you know they don't care oh in a city you could just drive and just yell out anyway yeah there's cabs beeping like so you never you know you're not waking anybody up everybody's used to it right and you come to satan island and you know even queens areas like brooklyn areas now you're waking everybody up it's 6 a.m so who's bitching about that um like i said getting in the way yeah like there's certain areas that we couldn't go in like they make them pick up midnight to like five so that you're not in their way really so like what do you mean richer areas no just owned areas by certain types of people in okay so new york so maybe upper echelon types or whatever you think Certain religion people, they have their...

1:03:23So like the Orthodox Jews don't want you in their neighborhood between 12 to 5. Bingo. Wow. And those are some nasty moments. Is it pretty nasty over there in their neighborhood? Well, they just... Listen, it's nothing against them. Because I have actually been in some of those houses. Yeah. Because there are people in those areas that are very nice. But then Passover comes, and they throw everything out. There are like five, six-year-olds throwing matches, lighting shit on fire. It was crazy I was like I can't do this no more Because they would bring Everybody pretty much Who was available From other garages To come and do this And you get one truck On a block And you just go up And down all day And they throw everything out Like I didn't know If you knew that About the Orthodox Jews They just get rid of everything They throw everything out Couches Beds Clothes Everything Goes in the garbage Why?

1:04:11It's just part of the tradition? Part of their religion Wow Start fresh It's Dude it's crazy so you got tons of trash yeah and it's just more of it's just chaos so like it would be a garbage truck every block and a and a fire truck firemen would have like three blocks because the kids are running around like and i had guys do it plenty of times they light something on fire and then throw it in the back of the truck now if i don't see it now everything in the truck's on fire why do they do that is that like a kind of like a just a are they training for like battle or something no it's just the kids oh kids screwing around animals oh yeah oh i blocked a bus one day and then that's what i'm saying like then that's when they get into we don't want them on the truck uh the streets early this time blah blah blah and these little kids get off the buses because now i held them up on the block and they're blowing the horn you know they have their own police their own people and they tell you you got to move the truck i'm like dude i'm almost done with the block i'm not moving the truck yeah the little kid gets off and he's flicking me the finger wow he's like five I'm like what are they what goes on here I don't know I got a bunch of Jewish friends I don't have any orthodox Jewish friends though them OJs I think or whatever you know I don't know I don't know I shared a room I was in a halfway house with an orthodox dude one time and he brought his own fucking grill he was dressed like Biggie Smalls at a Masonic temple and he was sweating and if you said pussy around him fucking he couldn't eat his eyes the shakes oh he'd open his mouth and fucking put his tongue out he's got was a perv and uh he was grilling his own meats in his fucking room or whatever with the sunlight or whatever i don't know what to do the guy would have bait you know he's in there fucking making burn-ins or whatever at 4 a.m you know when when i lost as he can it was just a magnifying glass yeah the ship was a cloud comes he's like damn it they ruined again and it was arizona dude this day he showed up on the porch literally i'm not joking it was 104 degrees outside and this guy is dressed bro like cruella de vil bro this motherfucker they wear some gear oh this guy had been raising some fucking mixed dogs in his coat bro this guy he smelled horrible um what yeah what ethnicity probably has the worst smelling garbage would it be orthodox you think no it was all the same it was all it's garbage right once you throw it in there it's all blended in and like you said during the summers it was it was grueling like people would walk by like covering their faces like that's how bad the truck smelled sometimes i once you're in it you don't know anymore well you you don't smell nothing anymore you get used to it huh so used to it cat cat urine was the worst for me oh oh it was awful because it would you would rub up on a bag that a cat just pissed on and like yeah like you were saying with the truck now we we get in me and my partner, and I know, like, bags stay far away from me.

1:07:09Yeah. You know, I'm a big enough guy, long enough arms. I kept that shit away. Oh, yeah. I never let the bags touch my legs. And I would look at my partner. I'm like, you got hit. Oh. And he's like, what do you mean? I said, you don't smell that? Because now you get in, it's even cold out. You close the doors, you put the heat on, and you smell that. Turn cat piss up, you know. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Disgusting. It's the worst smell out there. Yeah, I remember we used to get a bowl of cat piss, and we would do a hair dryer over it bro just to fucking piss my sister off do it under the door by her room fuck her dude awful fuck her um wow so there's no time of year really when the trash smells worse huh oh the summer's a bit just the summer's general overall but yeah it's you know there was some point you know you would open up a lid and if it was sitting there with maggots and stuff you get a kick.

1:08:03And that's another smell that was pretty brutal. But other than that, you got used to it. Was there a borough of New York where the trash smelled the worst, do you think? No. Okay, all the same. In Staten Island, there was a movie theater, and I fall from the dump before they closed it. It was awful, the smell. And they were building houses like crazy right there. I'm like, how could people buy? And then I became a garbage man, and then I don't smell it no more. stand out and don't smell no more because we would get you know shit on all the time by the boroughs yeah uh you know trash island you know all that but you just didn't smell it dude there's a lot of pride for people that live on trash i think you know there's something almost fucking something pretty amazing about it in a weird way like i when i was growing up we would burn the trash in a ditch that was the big thing in our area you know you bring everything out you burn it in a ditch the kids we would like get wet like get hose each other down and then run through the smoke till you look all black you know you'd be out there like a you know that's different it would be like yeah you know you would just it wasn't like doing blackface and it was just like burning trash and but you definitely looked a little smoky by the end you know it was it was just something to do you know yeah um what were we talking about oh oh when i went out to stand out Oh, yeah.

1:09:25And what it got like out there. Yeah. It's just, like I said, you deal with a different person now. Because you're dealing with humans. Yeah. Well, you're dealing with people who own the garbage. Right. Like it's their house. House to house to house to house. Right. I tell people all the time, I knew things about you from your garbage that you do not think I know. Really? And I wasn't picking through it. Right. You know, when you put that stuff in, it breaks up the bags. I knew when people, you know, it was your wife's time of the month. Oh, yeah. I know my wife will be disgusted by that, but you knew it.

1:09:55You know it. When the bag's ripped, your life is in front of me. And I ain't picking through it. Right. Yeah, and it's crazy how quick you see things so fast. Dude, I did this game one day, and I went in New York City right down. I went in the city. I think I was on the Lower East Side. And I did this game with people. I said, I'm going to open a bag of trash. You smell it. You take a whiff out of it, right? Just a random bag. Okay. And if you can guess three items that are in it, I give you a hundred bucks. Right. So dude, so these people, they all thought I was like that the bags, I had like brought them from home or something, put them together.

1:10:33I was picking these bitches up from the fucking corner. So you didn't even know if they would be right. Bro, I had no idea what was in them, dude. So we had people, we crack them back and fucking people are taking hits off of it, dude, over there off of an alphabet city, bro. Oh, that was nasty stuff down there. yeah there's a we made a video of it online but um anyway that was something we did with trash in the city um what about the was there any ladies that tried to flirt with you that ever happened on the route once you got into the houses like any fucking bin babies or any fucking they didn't notice you trying to run that can clam out on you bro well that's why i wore the shirt my butt this shirt's 25 years old really it's been i was going to give it to you But it says, put out your can, here comes the garbage man.

1:11:22I used to sport this shirt all the time. And it's a sexy lady, huh? With her butt out, you know, with her ass hanging in the wind. I like that. But no, listen, you didn't see people unless you were, you know, waking people up and, you know, in their way. Other than that, you were not, like, it was crazy because nobody even knew. They never acknowledged you. Wow. New York hated you because you were loud. until I don't remember the year, but like the New York Post or Daily News, one of those shit papers in New York, they posted how much money we made per year. That was it. Now everybody wanted the job.

1:11:58When they see you making six figures, picking garbage up, oh, well, my guy this. And now all of a sudden they know you're around. Wow, once the money comes on, huh? But prior to that, they could care less. That same thing happened with Joe Rogan in a way. I think once he got a Spotify deal and people saw like, oh, he's making money. Oh, they all jump on his tracks. Now they all fucking want to write articles about him and say he's racist. They're just using his name, you know? Yeah, exactly. So you guys pull in six figures a year with the job. Yeah. Right. Starting first year, it gains traction.

1:12:31No, yeah. My first year, I think if I had to guess 27 grand. Wow. But just with the overtime with the winter, with the snow and all that stuff with, you know, I think my first year I made like almost 60. Wow. Okay. So it almost doubled. Right. Because you have to be there. You know, New York doesn't stop. So it's you're on call all day. You know, 12 hour shifts. I've worked up to 31 days straight, 12 hour shifts. Oh, you know, 31 inches of snow here, two feet of snow here. It happens. So but you can make that money. I just had a guy just retired. He was making almost 200 grand. Wow. Picking garbage.

1:13:08But he would do 12 hour days every day over time. he would eat up you know kind of hated his family so yeah you know and you get it when you meet these families you're like yeah this is why this guy works all the time yeah wow um yeah this says bottom 20 36.3 this must be old though no it's i think starting right now is like 70 okay the average salary for a garbage collector in new york is around 76 000 per year and that's not overtime right so that's not having your overtime so that's where you can get up to 100 you can get six figures wow you can almost double that easy wow guys are doubling it easy remember when they had the fad of like the kids meet the garbage man oh i love yeah that was like when we were growing up yeah i used to you know love throwing beers to the guys yeah and it turned out like then i come to staten island those guys were still on on the job now i was like dude i remember you don't he's like yeah you would have fat little kid throwing shit off the top of the because i still lived on the same block so they kind of like yeah you had a we had like a porch out front and you know we dropped the beers down to the guys yeah but like i was saying with wearing like they didn't wear uniforms back then dude had like a wife beater on and like a pair of shorts oh yeah just gaggling through the streets yeah dude's wearing a fucking snorkel and a fucking exactly yeah yeah dude some questionable stuff back then dude wearing a snorkel and a bathrobe over there but like you said they like i was saying they didn't acknowledge it yeah you were there you picked the garbage up you left you're kind of the invisible man exactly you really are because yeah nobody wants to get that close people kind of want to pretend you don't exist unless you're making noise people don't engage yet you yeah you're kind of the invisible man until they realize you were making money and then suddenly like oh look at this rich asshole through this guy i gotta put more garbage out yeah yeah you know and then they would turn into well it's your job you know pick this up here take this you have to take this yeah what's the worst parts of the job that you get that kind of stuff is people telling you like yeah just being they always tell you oh yeah you know i pay your salary so i we always used to keep like nickels and dimes in the truck and i'd be like hold on i'll give you your money back because they would always say like all right each person gives you a nickel a year or and i would throw the nickel at them here here's your money the fuck out of my face you gotta take this the guy's whole apartment's out there yeah it's like dude go no and i would always respect the person to come out if you just said thank you or even gave us water because you know you weren't supposed to take money and all that stuff if you just said thank you and acknowledge me like i said that we were you know everybody nobody knew us thank you went a long way with me i'd take everything i don't care you know but when you look at me like oh i pay your salary and look down to me yeah yeah go fuck yourself yeah agreed your stuff would stay there for months oh yeah i'll fucking put it back in your house yeah i'll throw it right back on your curb dude i'll take it this is how spiteful i would have been bro i would have picked it up and the next day fucking brought it back if i could put it back on the guy's doorstep i got rid of this yesterday where'd this come back make him think he's crazy bro um now what about what's that you had that yeah a lot you know people were very you know people thought they owned you yep yeah i pay your salary and all that junk so fuck you that's what i say to that bro fuck him yeah i think we always have respect for people that did something you know well we lived also we got a little rural by us so sometimes you'd have the the bootleg garbage man you know who started their own service a guy who put like a took a truck and just put three wooden plywood walls, honey, you know what I'm talking about?

1:16:52To make the back of the truck a little taller. Fit more bags. Just load it up. Yeah, bro, that dude would fucking, our neighbor was one of those guys for a while, so his truck would always be out there. But he'd go to the rural routes, you know, and get him a little bit of garbage, man. Well, because we used to take everything. You know, you're talking, you know, couches, beds, you know, everything, even with recycling, you're taking refrigerators and all that stuff. Really? Everything. We took everything. Until what year? No, still to this day, you had to take everything. So you'll throw a refrigerator in the back of a garbage truck?

1:17:24Yeah, well, our recycling trucks, they went to two sides. Oh, for recycling. It's so annoying, yeah. But there was some that didn't fit in the small side with the recycling trucks now that the city gets. So now, yeah, they'll call you up, be like, oh, you got to go and throw it in the regular garbage truck. So a recycling truck is a different truck? Different truck. It's split down the middle. There's like a Say 28 inch side On this side And a three foot side On the other side Okay So the truck is split into two So you could pick up paper And you could pick up Metal glass You know Any stove Stuff like that You put on the other side On the metal Yeah on the metal side Okay Wow And how do you decipher that Because a lot of times People just put a recycling bin A big A recycling garbage can Out there right Gotta be separated In a New York But I didn't give a fuck Right We used to drive Early days We used to open the sides of the truck There's a door so the mechanics and stuff Can get in there and work on the compactor and stuff So we used to bring the blades all the way home Open the side hatch And drive the streets and while I was driving You were in the back loading But I was throwing stuff in the side of the truck While you were in the back So we were just loading the whole truck The whole block With whatever I didn't care I just threw it all in It all winds up in the same place A good amount of it The paper is recycled 100 % Everybody gets crazy with the bottles and the glass and all that.

1:18:47Unfortunately, I tell people the truth and they never wanted to hear it. Cans and stuff, yes. Metal, they recycle. The bottles, they just break up and winds up in a landfill. Wow. Colored glass was like gold to them. Really? And they stopped using it for everything. Glass is cheaper to make than it is to recycle and all that. It's too expensive. So colored glass, what do you mean? Why was colored glass so valuable? Just because now you had to pigment it and put color into it, the regular glass, so it costs more to make. Oh, I see. So if you've got a green glass, it already has the color in it.

1:19:21Yeah. So they melt it down and they use it again. Oh. But they stop using all that, like all the beer bottles and stuff. Yeah, yeah. They really don't use that stuff anymore. I remember Sprite used to come in a green bottle. Yep, no more. That was crazy, bro. You got your fucking Sprite, bro. Now they're jamming you all up. You think it's Sprite Zero now. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sprite Zero, dude. Come out the closet, bro. I want full Sprite. Give me full, no caffeine. Yeah, I want pure sugar, bro. Were there some accidents with the trucks? How dangerous did it get for people? Because if people didn't have commercial driver's license and they're driving those trucks in the beginning, was there a lot of casualties?

1:20:00Yeah, guys would do. There were a few guys that passed away. And it was more just people's stupidity. I had one guy, I don't know why he was holding something, going in the truck, wound up ripping his arm off. The truck ripped, it pulled him in? Dude, literally next time I saw him, he had like this mechanical, like three finger metal thing. Oh, like a skill crane? Yeah. He was like, he was like picking up like teddy bears and shit. Get you a fucking cab, man. I'm like, dude, what are you doing? Well, my hand got stuck. He said his hand got stuck and sucked him in. And it literally just got his arm off.

1:20:33Yeah. Is that a, is it a blade right there? Wow. Yeah, dude. I had another guy who was holding paper in New York that would wrap the bundles of paper before all this technology came out now. He used to pick massive bundles up, and he had the paper in the back of the truck and literally almost slid off all his fingers because his fingers were caught in the string. And when the truck closed, it tightened the string up so much. Dude, it looked like a ring got caught on all four of his. Oh, it was nasty. That it surgically fixed his fingers like it was a nightmare. Wow. So there's some dangerous ends to it.

1:21:07trash collector dies after inhaling discarded acid yeah no that's the guy uh i think that's the staten island guy let's see what happened new york city sanitation worker died yesterday after he inhaled the fumes of a corrosive acid from a discarded container that burst under the compacting blades of a garbage truck making routine collections in brooklyn it might have been heaney i think might be the last name let's see the source of the acid was not known as of last night when this article was written. This is in, I think, 2006. Touched off. A second sanitation worker was injured in the incident, which brought the mayor and sanitation commissioner rushing to the burn unit of New York Hospital.

1:21:48Touched off. The Brooklyn District Attorney Office said the investigation is continuing depending on what evidence is obtained. Anything else? Wow. Yeah, because somebody threw a battery, a car battery, like in a bag. Like I said, you don't know what's in there. and when it cycled it exploded all over the dude and that shit will kill you instantly like yeah it was it was shitty i think i want to say his last name was heaney but i could be wrong i wasn't on the job yet so i didn't know yeah but hanley hanley that's it wow yeah what is there other some other injuries like what about people ever hit pedestrians with trucks and stuff yeah that you know listen i stayed away from all that but there were definitely guys that did not We're not good drivers.

1:22:32They clip people's toes and shit in Manhattan. I used to yell, watch your toes. Watch your toes? That's what you're yelling? Yeah, because on the corners of Manhattan, everybody's standing in the fucking sidewalk, like standing in the crosswalk. It's like, dude, watch your toes. Damn. Yeah, there was a guy in New York. I want to say it was Manhattan. A dude just rolled. And it was his partner. Just rolled right over his feet. It blows out your ankle. Uh-uh. Yeah, when they rolled right over his foot, boof, his ankle blew out. Because of the pressure. Yeah, the weight of the truck. Oh, my gosh.

1:23:11That's like a cartoon. No, it's nasty. Nasty shit. Wow. I had a buddy fall out of the truck. He was having fun in the truck, let's put it this way. Older guy. And this dude made a left, and he rolled out. His leg went under. I mean, they graft his foot. They graft everything. They saved it, but it looked like he was wearing a moon boot. Oh, yeah. You know, got off the job. But any time I saw him after that, it was like four times the size. Some Neil Armstrong fan. I was dragging a marshmallow around. It's crazy. Yeah, my dad had this buddy, and one of his feet. You know, you used to see this commonly back in the day.

1:23:50Somebody would have that big sole on their shoe, you know. Somebody would be uneven, you know. Yep. and my buddy had his friend and he would his friend would always stand on this little piece of cement because it made him even bro he'd fucking he like wouldn't leave it in the neighborhood bro my dad's neighborhood yeah he'd like kind of walk around it like pivot around it but he would never leave that spot the second he left off that bitch bro yeah the world got kind of uh everything turned into a teeter-totter for him wow so that's it's really really fascinating i'm trying to think of some other yeah i think he had mike rowe on and he you know he was one of the guys that years ago listed the sanitation as like one of the 10 deadliest jobs and you know wow and it's just more dude you'd be shocked at how many people don't see the truck that literally just drive into the back of the truck and if you're back there you know it's a wrap you know there was a lot of so there's a lot of danger that happens like that people just hit in the back of the truck the guy's standing back there driving not paying attention to you oh it's craziness you know everybody's in a rush especially in New York and you're no pain no mindless so they're just driving around I mean the truck can't get any bigger for you not to see and people are driving to the back of the truck all the time I had a dude hit me once literally I see him I'm at break and I see him bouncing off cars coming down the road and I'm like what's this dude doing like ping ping I jumped over like in the truck there's like this cab like this little thing where the engine is I literally was jumping onto my partner And he was like What's going on here Like he thought we were getting frisky At 8 in the morning Next thing you know Boom The dude drills the truck Literally drives right into the driver's side Like gas tank Right near my Like I'm like What the hell Turned out the dude Old dude Was on all kinds of medication Oh yeah So Yeah dude My dad sometimes Would let He would go He'd like Get into the post he'd go to the post office right my dad was real old when i was born he was 70 and so uh at 80 years old he's taking me on rides like i'm gonna go to the post office and i think he didn't know kind of like how age or worked or whatever because i hit like a growth spurt and he's like will you just drive around i can't legally park it will you drive around the block for me and i was 10 years old dude you know i was about five i think i was five three or something i'd hit a little growth spurt and his vision was bad and so i'm next you know i'm driving in this delta 88 bro right this big boat no power steering bro i can go around the block dude and i don't know how big the block is you know yeah i go around i fucking hit seven cars bro and this thing was a piece of shit like a battleship oh my dad he bought it off a couple brothers and it had some uh 22s in the back right around the corner so he was always listening to like npr like with bass and shit like it none of the the whole life didn't make any sense dude i fucking hit six cars i could finally get back around to pick up my dad he had no idea where you've been the whole car is no no idea bro god um what about the rat problem is that what what kind of animalia do y 'all run into on a garbage route bro and be honest with me yeah no uh it's just different areas had different you know staten island was like mice you know you'd see some you know decent size you know like seven inch eight inch rats with like you know a nice size tail but that's what i'm talking about dude fuck a mice is just a gay rat i think yeah they're just babies yeah just running around like idiots i used to squish them with my feet really you could step right on them yeah they're in the bags and then when they come out you just and they assholes and eyes popping out oh yeah it's nasty but yeah i stopped doing that when i got a little older yeah yeah i think you grow out of that and the government will put lipstick on them and then fucking kill them with fucking uh ozempic or whatever so who the fuck know you're saying like you're the bad guy exactly yeah i stepped on a few mice oh well kill me now now what about the rat problem in the city you hear about it you know they allegedly signed a czar to guys some uh this lesbian cheese hunter up there now fucking trying to kill him right which is fine more power to her if she wants to fucking show up and go to war i'm game right uh but how bad was the rat problem in the city even with that like let's be honest you ain't getting rid of them there's no way yeah and there there was some big boys up there fuck yeah the un oof because you're right near the water there oh i saw one wearing a charles barkley jersey dude i wouldn't doubt it up there bro i was so there's one night we're working picking baskets up you know how there's corner baskets in Manhattan.

1:28:37So there's just a basket on every corner where people throw litter and stuff, you know? Oh, yeah. So they're all lined up in front of the UN. So we're doing the baskets. It was early in my career. And is each basket a different country or something? No. No, it's just a basket like all along the UN. There's just more there because they don't want litter. Okay. So there's just more baskets in the front of the UN. I'm thinking it's like the Epcot Center of Trash or something, you know? So, but it's the Epcot Center of rats. I mean dude I'm talking boys and dude I dumped the basket so it was quick like once you started doing the basket you spin off the truck quick bang bam you're right back like literally taking me 30 3 seconds to dump a pail oh so you throw it dump it and it's back boom and then you jump on the truck we still had the steps at the time so I see fluttering going on dude I mean with the tail this thing had to be 18 inches oh yeah that thing probably went to Rutgers yeah he was that fullback so big boy so dude i'm working with this dude i'm jump off the truck and he dude i'm running along the truck away from it dude i'm just running he's like what are you doing he looks next to me i'm running i said there's something in there man he's like what do you mean so we went back there with like the broom and the shovel to like kill it and just cycled it up i was like i ain't fucking around with it because you would have like possums and stuff like as you cycle it like a little garbage will fall down and it gives them a little escape so they pop out the little mice used to do that all the time you know what explain it to me i'm not understanding it so when you when the cycle goes up in a truck like sometimes there's like bags and stuff right at the edge that you just pushed up right so when you open it again to now like bring the next set of garbage up like you would literally get like a bag or two will flip down and it'll push garbage up towards the let like the ledge of the truck.

1:30:25And an animal, that's like their escape route now. Oh, I see. So I'm like, fuck that. I ain't doing that. So I told him, you go back there. And he had time on the job, so he was used to it. He was used to it. So sometimes it'll be cycling. You'll see an animal just pop out of there. Yeah, you know, you get possums, raccoons, the mice, the rats. They literally just jump right out. Yeah. Now, what's the most... Here's one right here. A garbage man saves kittens from trash. Jesus. Yeah, I mean... shauna tavade probably doing this you'll be shocked man yeah anybody ever try to put a baby in the garbage bro so i won't tell anybody if you know no no and i'll know if you're lying too all right so i had like a year on a job got hurt sure i had this uh shoulder done surgery so they do like this mail carrying thing where you bring you know the mail to like like lower East garages.

1:31:19So you go to like the main area, pick up all the mail, you give it to each garage. So I pull into one of the garages. I forget somewhere in Manhattan too, I think. Oh, so it's a job you can still work even though you're injured. Exactly. So I'm like in rehab, you know, coming back, you know, trying to get my arm back together. And next thing you know, I walk in the garage, everybody's in Tyvek suits, white Tyvek, you know, covered head to toe. I'm, I got a t-shirt and pants on. I'm like, what the fuck's going on here? It's a Shriners meeting. Right. So there's a garbage truck emptied out on the floor because they got a phone call that a girl put a baby in a corner basket.

1:31:56I just, I don't even know if they found it. I just, you know. Nobody puts baby in a corner basket. No, nobody. But they did it. Listen, they were nervous, you know, and that's what they do, these kids. Yeah. Man, it's heartbreaking, man. What about this video right here? Garbage man saves kittens from trash. Let's get a little volume on it. This dude cutting into a little, uh,

1:32:24oh, look like he cutting open a bag of coke, huh, this guy.

1:32:31Oh, he heard something.

1:32:39Oh, it's an eight ball of cats, bro. Damn. Baby kittens. They heard the meowing. Oh. Gosh. That's people for you, man.

1:32:58That's unreal. That's people. Yeah. Yeah, what do you learn about society? What are some of your thoughts on society? You think that, like, does it give you a negative look at society? does you just think this or does it does that kind of thing even happen like as you work in that industry yeah listen it'll change your mind real quick to just this strange people out there man it's some crazy that you see in the garbage like that reminds me of the time i smell a skunk i'm like what the is that smell in the back of the truck like that's something odd so now i could smell it and there was like a skunk in like a little pathmark bag like that we used to call them like the little plastic bags tied up and everything and i'm thinking to myself like who the fuck took the time to grab this skunk kill it and then put it in a bag yeah it's like people ain't right to even think of doing that like who's playing with skunks like perverts bro perverts i think i wouldn't do it bro yeah people get rid of any lot yeah like uh I'm trying to think of the biggest animal somebody could get rid of without you guys noticing.

1:34:11Probably Black Lab, huh? That was the yellow lab. Dude, still to this day, I can see those guys. Crying, huh? Crying. And were they gay guys, you think? Yeah, some would say. Yeah. And no judgment anyway, bro. Yeah, everybody's got a gay cousin or son or father. You know, these days, you can't even. Everywhere. In three generations, everybody's going to be just gay doing Uber Eats. Dipping their toes into it. Oh, yeah. Who knows, bro? What about on the home front? What is the home front life like for a sanitation worker? Is it tough on your home life? Is it easy on it? What kind of life is it?

1:34:56The winters were tough. Like I said, if it snowed, you were stuck there. 12-hour shifts, 10-hour shifts. When you say stuck there, what do you mean? Because it takes so long to get through the route? No, it's just like if it snows. So New York, and I've been to here. I've been here when they had that ice storm. I think it was a few years back. Everybody shuts down. New York don't stop. We're out there all night through the night, 12-hour shifts, spreading salt, plowing snow. Oh, so you guys do other jobs instead of just the garbage? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I didn't know this. Yeah, we clean all the streets, the snow.

1:35:32We do the salt spread and the front and low to work. We do all that stuff. Really? Yeah. God damn. Shit. I guess if the Rangers needed a Zamboni driver, they could put one of you guys in. I'd probably pull it off. Wow. Yeah. But I didn't know that you guys do all those other jobs. Yeah. Oh, there's probably, if I had to guess, over 100 different job titles on that job. It's just not garbage, man. Right. There's so many. Ranking, like, you could have a desk job. You could have the guy who hooked me up with this, you know, Johnny Lex. that was my boy he had the desk job you know and that's what that's a job now what's the desk job like what's that guy doing nothing he literally is just setting up the days you know what's what's tomorrow all right let me get all the cards and the routes ready for tomorrow pretty much nothing yeah it's a you know we call them tit jobs yeah it's a tit job yeah so they're in there that's doing fantasy football, really.

1:36:29Yeah, and he's terrible at it. Is he? Yeah, he's 0-6 this year. Oh, damn. I was talking to him last night. I was talking to him last night. I'm like, dude, the team's sad, bro. He probably had Aaron Rodgers. That's why he probably had an injury. Yeah, no, I don't think he did, but just sad. But there was a lot of, and that winter aspect is a totally different animal because you're doing just, say, three, four days. You could get six inches of snow. take you two three days to like settle in now you got to go pick all the garbage up that was left out for the last three four days so now every house that you'd normally do two days a week now it's all double garbage for one pickup because they because you missed one well yeah and because of the snow exactly like manhattan after a snowstorm oof bad news man really piles and piles of it of garbage garbage just unlimited garbage it's um it's unbelievable you ever find somebody hiding in the garbage like do you know you have to you have to hit a bit like hit a dumpster with a fucking you know wrench or something to get a homeless guy out of there ever no i never had to do that it's pretty you know nobody wants to be in the garbage in new york wow it's just it's funny because in movies and stuff you always see this romanticized look of a homeless guy popping out of a dumpster you know i'm saying like that old kind of they're around you know but we don't do container work oh you don't that's privates the private guys those containers on the street where those guys are sleeping behind yeah no that's all privates what about like a dumpster at a school or something that's private yeah i didn't do that but that's a whole different truck those are easy packs so they have forks on the front that lift it over the truck and then compacted and behind so you never worked with that i never picked that up i drove them i used to have to dump them but i never actually picked them so that's called an easy pack truck the ones that have the forks on the back that like yeah yeah on the front oh yeah that go right into those two slots on the side of the dumpster and they throw it back over the top yep and whenever you throw that back over so sometimes there's a party of trash come right down the front of you filthy trucks oh disgusting oh disgusting sometimes the container come off it'd be hanging out the side of it now you got to get somebody out drag it off it's a fucking nightmare wow yeah um and then the other truck the truck you drove more had a cycler in the back that was just you throw them in yep wow bag fed or something what do they call exactly yeah it's like a hand fed you just bag in and then when it gets full you can't fit no more you bring it down it swoops it into the truck compacts it and then you fill it again and rinse and repeat how is the how has the industry changed over the time well now they actually just put out uh the city i think this week that they're trying to bring out where homeowners, I guess if you associations, like if you have a bunch of people, cause there are certain areas that were loaded with mice and rats because they were just, you know, near swamps and stuff like that.

1:39:24Yeah. And house to house, you go grab a pail and they're scattering. Yeah. So now they're trying to put these little dumpsters, but plastic, not the metal ones you see at like, you know, the restaurants and stuff around town. And now they have things on the back to lift it, you know? And my buddy just said New York just came out with them. It's never going to work. Bloomberg tried to go to the arm. The arm that lifts it on its own and one guy's in the truck and never gets out and never touches anything. I have that in New Jersey now at my house. There's just not enough space. There's too many people in New York.

1:39:58So there's cars on top of cars. So there's no room for the garbage truck to get to the garbage. There's no room for the arm to get to the trash. Exactly. right homeowners across the five boroughs will soon have to shell out at least 50 for new trash bins as the big apple tries to crack down on rodents by standardizing garbage collections under new rules announced by mayor mayor eric adams wednesday single family homes and small apartment buildings up to 10 units will have to purchase the new cans from an as yet under undetermined vendor in an effort to modernize the way the big apple collects its trash wow somebody's bidding on that contract that bad huh money money money fuck it's crazy how much money there is in garbage oh nobody thinks of it nope because you're forgotten nobody realizes it but like that like somebody's gonna make those pails now yeah 90 of the time it's guys that were retired big chiefs that are on from the job they go out and start these businesses because they had the bright idea when they were on the job, but they said, let me bring it out when I retire.

1:41:04Right. And then, oh, I know. Let's bring it in. Damn. I mean, they DOT. Well, not DOT. They pick up derelict vehicles. Sanitation does that, too. Oh, they do? Yeah. Any vehicles that, you know, the foreman have to go out, tag them, you know, write whatever date. If the car's not gone off the street with, like, no plates and stuff on the street. Oh, yeah, definitely. They send tow trucks out. They take them, too. Have you ever had to be involved in that? No. i didn't deal with that but you've had to be involved with salting the roads or anything salt in the roads uh front and loaders uh big like rubber tire machines used to have to fill the spreaders and then i would have to drive down certain blocks where you couldn't get like like bigger spreaders i would have to do dead ends with that so you like take a bucket back up with street take a bucket back up pile it up back there like in the bad storms you would get like a dump truck with you and you would load the dump truck and then they would like dump it all somewhere in town like near the water and whatever all the salt no all the snow oh the snow on the bad storms when the snow was so bad when they would clean schools and dead ends and stuff like that you would have to go around with the front end loader i would have two dump trucks with me and i would load the dump trucks filled with snow okay so we're talking about snow i thought you're talking about spreading salt well it's the same kind of thing but the spreaders couldn't fit down some of these blocks okay so instead of getting the spreader they go and actually try and pick the snow up with a front end loader we call them big rubber tire machines you know damn so i did that for pretty much the whole career 18 years i was doing that in the winters oh so you do that in the winter and then trash in the spring no it's just when it when it comes up you go you know you do it but that was a fun part driving the front end loaders yeah that was good times oh that's cool.

1:42:49Because you didn't have to get out that much, huh? No. And you were like saving people. That's when people loved you. Dude, there were areas where you couldn't get down. Like spreaders would slide off the road. Yeah, we would have to wreck her, drag them off of cliffs. Like it was crazy. The winters were nuts. And then they were like, alright, get a machine up there. And it was like the hills are like this, bro. And you know, I had this boss who always, where's Owen? They're like, what do you mean? All last names on the job. like where's Owen get him on the horn let's go get him in here because he knew I would just tell everybody stay away because everybody's out there shoveling throwing the more salt I mean uh snow into the street making it more of a mess yeah and then he knew like yeah I'm gonna buckle up and here we go let's send the hit man in uh let's see what happens oh hell yeah yeah hell yeah what's the what type of attitude does someone have to have or what skill set does someone have to have or who would best be a, be able to be a garbage man, a sanitation worker?

1:43:50Oh, it all, it's, listen, it's about the community. You know, when it all comes down to it, you know, I still took pride in, like, especially those days with, you know, knowing that my mother had to drive, my family, people, friends have to drive on those roads during the winter. Yeah. So yeah, there were guys that would hide, you know, and not spread salt. But like me, I was out there 12 hours spread and salt. I had no problem with it. So it's a, it is a sense of pride that, you know, you work for the city, but in the same sense, it's, there's not a, you know, I had a girl tell me once on the job, she's like, you like, you were like born for this job.

1:44:25And I didn't know how to take it. Like I was a little taken back. Like, like, is it a good thing that she's saying that? Or like, am I a piece of shit? Like, I was just like, I was throwing away. I like, got really thrown off like i'm just like hey thanks yeah i got i had nothing to say and she was cool as shit she was awesome but because we had girls that did the job too really yeah man wow some of them i'd rather work with some of them than some of the other guys really yeah there were there were you know women out there that were you know hustlers oh yeah you know and then there were guys that you always thought you would go to it oh yeah you come work with me you know going jacked up yeah no he's just doing that for the girls really help me i can't lift this trying to meet the women on on the yeah they're going to the gym all day pumping iron but they can't lift you know a hundred pound couch they used to swing couches like in one shot oh yeah you know that's beautiful yeah i think it's like uh in some cultures that yeah that's like a wedding ritual or something a man and a woman throwing like i don't know what it is Was there a lot of intermingling on the job or something?

1:45:29There was some I never partake in that A lot of ladies trying to put that dumpster on Well you got two pensions There were a few That body dumpster boy There were definitely a few And listen you look at it like I just said You get two pensions, both of these retire It's a good life Let's go to Florida and stay What um Yeah did people Yeah, was there ever a couple that met on the job And ended up getting married Yeah Wow Retired One wound up being a boss I don't Oh, his wife might have became a boss But Yeah, you know Listen, it happened Love happens everywhere Yeah, you're together a long time You're out in the streets all day And And Some guys and girls hit it off What are some other things people would collect out there in the trash?

1:46:19Anybody find anything really unique over the years? Any bone structure or anything like that? listen you'd find all kinds of stuff if you were looking like i said like you didn't look though i i didn't have time for it like i said i was running i want to get done i want to be out of the street right i don't want to deal with people like i said the people that don't pay attention to you they drive into you right it's just risky hot you know crabby days but this one time i'm with my buddy you know louie and we're picking up this apartment building and we open the gates and there's, I think it was six or seven Joker poker machines.

1:46:52And I'm like, what the fuck is this about? Oh yeah, video poker? Yeah, like in the bars, you know, they have those, you know. Yeah, mom used to use our allowance in them. Yeah. And so I worked at bars when I was younger and I knew, I'm like, oh yeah, the money's stashed underneath. So we opened them up, there was nothing there. But I'm like, you know what? I remember one of the bar owners having like a trap door because sometimes the dollars, you know, the$10 bills would just float in and there was this little Tupperware in it And it would float, float, and it'd fall perfect right down the slit.

1:47:20So when I saw that was still blocked off, we dragged them back to the garage. We beat the living piss out of these things with sledgehammers. My boss walks in, and he's like, I'm not even going to ask what's up. Right? Dude, we got$360 apiece,$720. Dude, and they were the finest$10 and$20 1980 bills. Oh, yeah. They were like right out the machine. Oh, that's beautiful. So, yeah, that was one of my better ones. But listen, you find things here and there. I always found something that somebody was throwing out, and I didn't have to dig. It was next to the curb. I found a moped once in Manhattan.

1:47:55Oh, yeah. Right on the side of a basket, the corner basket there. And it was probably from a Chinese restaurant, something like that. It was locked in to turn left. So who's going to just keep driving in a circle? Kids must have stole it. And they realized, ah, we can't use this. So they left it at the corner basket. Right. so I told my partner I'm gonna take this and as we're putting it like I said there's a little trap door as I'm putting it in there the cops pull up so we're like and this guy I'm working with is like damn Owen you know fuck me all up now I'm gonna get locked up for this shit right we're stealing a fucking yeah stealing a moped from somebody you know from some Chinese kid yeah like the guy's laying there holding bags and nah so he's like they just pulled up they were like yo is it run I'm like I don't know I'm gonna see brought that shit home broke the steering collar and wound up getting it started and I used to use it to go down to the bodega down the block and grab beers and shit.

1:48:51Yeah. That was a good find. Yeah, that's a good find. Yeah. That's interesting, man. You know, I'm trying to think. I think I would like... I think I probably would like it. When I was young, I had to do the trash at the house, you know. I didn't mind it. You know, just home sanitation or whatever. get it out to the curb you know but i was a kid you know we'd never see we never got to see the real artist pull up in the early morning you know we was still asleep or something or probably just getting up for school well kids love it too like they come out they want to work the handles yeah now what happened kids like that was a fad for a while where like a lot of moms would do the uh tiktok videos that a kid meets the garbage man were you around for that yeah i had a few like i and i would get the kids stuff like shirts and stuff i would always give them back i would have kids that like stand um like at the glass door the mother would hear us in the neighborhood open the main door and then there's like a sliding like a like a screen door yeah with glass and the kids just used to sit there and i loved it you know you get parents all the time like oh of all people my daughter loves you guys like little kids you know i don't know kids are fascinated with it and it's awesome but at the same time it's like the parents they'll probably like ah don't do that you know don't grow up to be a garbage man yeah because they don't realize the money in right you know but now more people are gonna know it's a good business it sounds like you have to have a you got to keep a positive attitude though huh that's it listen it the day goes by so much easier if you just get through the work you have a good partner good relationship with your partner it's awesome listen there's so many other shittier jobs like i would take that over any city job in New York.

1:50:35Really? Yeah, like you got the firemen, you know, they're just wearing T-shirts trying to get free stuff. Oh, yeah, and they're fucking, let's be honest, they're making shit, they're just eating Franks back in there. Exactly. No judgment, I love these guys. Yeah, no, 100%. My brother-in-laws, one's retired, one's still on. Yeah. I got a lot of friends that do it. I just bust their chops all the time because they're always wearing a fire department T-shirt. I'm like, dude, you got no other clothes in your office. Yeah. Oh, they definitely, they fucking, yeah. And then you light a fucking match and they're over there beating up a birthday cake just to fucking flex a little.

1:51:05Put it out. Fireman's here. Yeah, yeah. But meanwhile, I laugh. I'll talk about my brother-in-law's quick, my wife's brothers. They'll come to my house and I got a fire pit in the yard. Dude, it's like they're trying to light my house on fire. It's like, bro, don't you put these out? Why are you starting this shit this big? And I got like a tin roof over it. Metals melting. I'm like, dude, what's the point of this? Yeah, yeah. You're a bird feeder, bro. You look in your bird feeder. you got a fucking grilled sparrow in there. It's like, dude, what are you trying to prove? Are you trying to put another fire out here?

1:51:35Do that on their time, not mine. A lot of firemen are closeted. Pyromaniacs. Pyromaniacs, arsonists, barn burners, whatever they're called, bro. Flame babies, whatever they call them, bro. Crazy. Oh, yeah, a bunch of fucking kerosene mammals, bro. They don't give a fuck, dude. They'll fucking drink kerosene and then blow a fucking flamethrower. They don't give a fuck, dude, them guys. And the cops, it's tough, man. I feel bad for New York cops. Do you? I got a lot of friends. You know, listen, there's bad apples all over this. I don't care what industry you're in. People are idiots, the way they act, the way they treat people.

1:52:11Yeah. But just, it's just crazy how they treat New York cops. Like, when I was growing up, you respected the cops. Yeah. That was it. You shit on the garbage, man. You respect the cops. Yeah. But now it's like, I just don't get it. So those are two jobs I don't even want. yeah i think the media's let a lot of that happen you know i think you have a lot of like the same types of uh folks doing a lot of crime that don't have any respect for police officers i think uh you have a lot of kids raised with no families yeah no parents that don't have any respect for anybody so and the people that were supposed to be in their you know authority is they in fact hate authority because they never had any so it's like the second they see a cop you know yeah it's heartbreaking dude yeah what a lot of those guys go through do you have a relationship with police fire the others the other like municipalities that what of course no yeah yeah uh civil service yeah the civil service yeah of course you know they always you know they always call up they gotta throw stuff out you know during the winters you know the police department was always like you had to go do the police department and that was like even the ferry in staten island you had to go hit that with the plows and everything get all that spread you know salt spread it down you know i would always go to the fire departments you know so you take a do you take a spreader onto a ferry no it's like the ramps to get on the ferry so like where all the buses come in yeah you know that that you have to hit all those ramps and i mean it's non-stop it's like one truck does that all day goes up and down the main road and then comes back and hits all those bays to make sure that all the buses you know i had this bus you know back into me once i'm like dude you didn't see this big truck like i got blinking lights everywhere yeah oh it's my fifth day on the job i felt bad for the kid probably got fired i did feel bad for him but they drove right into the plow i'm like oh man but yeah you respected each other you know and you know i got pulled over a few times here and there you know for stupid shit like tint in my windows and stuff like that all right don't worry about it yeah basic asian crimes really i call those yeah every time i get stopped for that um what type of ethnicity is a garbage man a lot of times when we had black and white men mostly is it every ethnicity or is it it is every so it's a real universal job yeah we had the most diverse in the city that's the most diverse city job and it was dude it was fun man i had a lot of fun yeah you had a lot of cool people a lot of cool people a lot of fun people a lot of guys i still talk to oh yeah you know that's so cool man yeah i think there is something about the camaraderie what was it like when you got back to like the the the house or whatever you you know was there a uh what was that like was there a shop or something where would you guys all get back to and hang out was there like a bunk house yeah you always had like a an area where you know you would have couches you know which there was like rules like oh don't sit on it in your city uniform like nasty but you know people always did did they gross nah people would go do the trash route and then come and yeah and then come and lay down on the couch.

1:55:14It's like, dude, what are you doing? Oh my God, bro. That makes me so sad. And then you, listen, you know, even the bathrooms in some of these places. Like I always wanted to, I wanted to do like a study and go to guys' houses and see how they react, like how they are around their families. Cause I'm like, if you do this here and you don't clean up after yourself, like, you know, what do you do home? Yeah. Like, does your wife wipe your ass? Like, I don't get it. Oh, you know, the wife probably glad they're not at home. Oh, anybody ever have a wife that killed them while they were on the job that you knew?

1:55:52Anybody? No, nothing like that. Yeah. A lot of divorces. They used to say it's cheaper to keep them. That was the going saying like, oh, you get married. It's cheaper to keep them. Yeah. Guys coming in with like paychecks for$1.99. Like, cause that's how many kids. Baby mama's ahead and everything. Oh. Do you guys compete against other civil service groups? Is there like a volleyball squad or anything? No, we used to do a softball thing on Staten Island. There's three garages. We used to do that for a few years, but nothing other than that. Does your son want to be a garbage man when he grows up?

1:56:30No. Believe it or not, my oldest doesn't even remember me being a garbage man. I used to bring the truck. But he was young. you know and now we're in i think i want i want to say i left staten island six years ago so he was four so he's still young you know so you had 20 years of service man you got it done you look so young i mean you had 20 years of service you got in and got out retired at 41 uh started my own you know construction i do bathrooms kitchens all that stuff yeah and then my back went out oh so i've been on the shelf for right now getting back in the game are you on pain pills or not No, I don't mess with that shit Amen, brother No, I went on to medical marijuana for a while Just to take gummies Oh, yeah Okay, you got a piss too?

1:57:15Yeah, I'm almost Alright, let's go real piss Then we'll come back up and finish up Is that cool? Yeah, whatever you want to do Yeah, what does the retirement look like? What does the retirement look like? So, you get Yeah, did they give you like a Watch or a jacket? Is it like a big thing? You get a pension You don't get nothing from them You get the pension. You get a pension. Pension, health benefits. Okay. All paid. For life. For your family until you're gone. Wow, dude, that's incredible. So there's a lot of value there. Yeah, everybody passes that over. When guys are like, oh, I got to stay on the job.

1:57:52I got to do 25 because my pension's only this now. But they don't realize how expensive insurance is. Yeah. At least two grand for four people. Yeah. Me, my wife, my kids. Yeah. so you know like you said it's money yeah oh yeah that's about sure that's more in people people pay as much to insure themselves you know it's some people's more than a mortgage than their rent yeah um so you get that you're done what do you do you're 41 years old you just retired from a job pretty incredible how what makes you decide to go into uh like home construction and stuff like that i grew up around it my father owned the hardware store growing up really yeah oh it's so cool so i had every tool in the shed i had everything you know and five six years old i was using saws oh yeah because they didn't have no safety shit on it back then oh yeah somebody breaks in your home you fucking skill saw them my mother would scream get away from that because my father was at work so i would just i made my i think i was eight years old i was building a tree house yeah of course my wife's like me and my my mother like what are you doing i'm like i'm just building a tree house you're like this tree house ain't gonna build itself exactly kicked the step slit my head open that was the end of the tree house wow yeah but yeah i just love working like with woodwork and you know all that stuff um is your father still alive he is oh wow still doing it great dude i'll never you know but you know then he went into different things you know he became a court runner as well he used to run around for a law firm you know he did that And then, you know, and he started working with me.

1:59:32That was about three weeks. Couldn't take that shit no more. So he's still doing home improvements. He's actually doing a bathroom right now. Oh, amen. I'm like, dude, you're crazy. Yeah. But he likes to work though. Yeah. He's always is. Oh, you get enjoyment out of it. You know, when I do kitchens and bathrooms for people, you feel it, you feel more, you know, just the, the wow. And oh my God, you could do this. Like I, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's something that, that, that, that's missing from my job too. A lot of times is the fee is that physical feeling of completing something, you know, that construction, the building, you know, there's definitely something inside of us that wants to, uh, to build or complete something.

2:00:16Um, I think for a lot of us anyway, um, yeah, my mother loves to work. She just, I'm always like, mom, can I help you out? Can I do this? She's like, you know, I need to get a new van so I can keep doing my deliveries. It's like, hey, look, you want somebody to be happy. You want them to do what they want. Yeah, people always, there's always that thing, you don't want to end up being a garbage man. Did that ever make you feel bad? You didn't think anything about it? Was there any? Oh, listen, everybody would say, oh, garbage man, this and that. And like I said, always look down. but listen i i didn't give a shit yeah i was making good money yeah you can do whatever you want i don't give a shit and your job sounds honestly as crazy it sounds fun dude it was awesome dude i got i didn't even get into craziness but it really was it's like you're on your own it's you or your partner the garbage truck you just pick up garbage they give you a route here's the blocks it's a blast yeah and it's all dude i used to clip on a uh like a speaker six in the morning you hear me coming down the block that shit's blasting dance music rap music yeah like bumping picking garbage up having fun i never it i never like bothered me once there are people on the job that hate it really yeah like that you know oh i don't tell people about this it's like you know i i didn't care it's not hpv dude yeah i'm like exactly somebody's got to do it but yeah i loved it we got into a real quick story i but my buddies come flying up a one way and now me and my buddy louis we're down like it's we're pointing down the one way they come flying up the wrong way i'm like what the fuck is going on here i said oh maybe they're coming to help us because you used to do that all the time on the job you call out to friends, hey, listen, my route's heavy today.

2:02:09Can you come and grab this block? Yeah, no problem. You always help each other out. They jump out the truck, they start whipping us with eggs. It was like around Halloween. It might have been Halloween. So they're chucking eggs all over the truck. They're throwing eggs at us. Me and my buddy Louie, actually, I'm throwing garbage and Louie goes running by me. I'm like, where'd you go? And then eggs start flying over my head. So now we fly up the block they back out they they drive away right so now you always have blocks that intertwine yeah so they go the main street we go to the store get two dozen eggs we go all these shortcuts cutting every light off we block you know we just ran we waited for them where we knew they were going to go and now regular earth is happening like people are out at the there's a food store right there yeah there's people walking the streets everything dude we're hiding behind cars and they pull up and get stuck at the light.

2:03:06Dude, we whipping. Oh, yeah. Bah, bah, bah. They were covered head to toe. They couldn't get out. They were blocked in by cars where we had the chance to run. We had to go back to my mother's house and wash the inside of the cabs out. That's how bad it was. Like Hagenau. That's crazy, man. But no. Oh, that's fun. Yeah. Nobody's even paying attention to you. That's fucking fun, dude. Oh, that's cool. And could you listen to music in the vehicle or there's no music in there? Yeah, no. You would bring radios in. On your own. you would get like a radio or boombox or something like that but you listen to what you want to do yeah country music was my thing you know later in my role yeah and when i first started you know i was i used to get yelled at in one area because the music was too loud oh yeah yeah because we would pump it listen you got to make the best of your day oh i think so too music helps everything for sure yep um what's good and bad about the unions like about unions what is that whole setup like can you talk about it if you don't feel comfortable Oh, that's okay.

2:04:08Yeah. I mean, it's - Because you're in the union, right? Well, no, because now the city pays me. I'm not really in the union anymore. Okay. I'm done. It's not like - Because I don't understand unions fully. So maybe, do you even have any explanation to me about what union? Because you were part of a union, right? Yes, I was. Okay. So how does that even - For some jobs, you have to be in a union to have the job? Yeah. Certain businesses run under union standards. Okay. Which means you have to have paid dues. And, you know, whatever it is, monthly, you pay dues. and you stay in good standard within the union.

2:04:41And then you get into like iron workers and all that. Those unions are totally different because those unions are paying those guys pensions. To me, when I worked for New York, yes, we ran for a union. Like there's a different union for us, the fire department, the police department. Everybody has their own union. But once I'm done, I'm out of that union and now the city just sends my checks. Like I have nothing to do with the union anymore. I don't go to meetings. I don't, you know, picket line. I don't do all that nonsense no more. Did you guys ever have to strike? We couldn't. We were signed under the Taylor law.

2:05:13Okay. So the Taylor law, you can't strike. If, you know, you could lose. That's the one way you could lose your job. You couldn't. It was crazy, dude. The job, you could never lose the job. I'm dead honest. Literally, I knew guys that killed people, that worked on their job. Yeah. They went to prison. Their pensions are still waiting for them. Amen. When they come out. but the thing is if you were dirty if you came up on drugs and stuff on an accident and somebody got hurt that's probably the only way you can lose your job i see so but the unions it's tough it's listen they're great it's just it's a it's expensive yeah what type of injuries happen on the job to guys a lot like i said i had uh my my left knee meniscus surgery my right rotator my left uh clavicle like i busted up and it's just from swinging bags really yeah and then my back of course was just a matter of time oh yeah you know once i stopped running around the streets picking garbage up and now i'm doing my side well not my side but i was doing kitchens and bathrooms at my speed not running four miles every day my back just locked up on me so i had to go in and the knife was it um was it hard to adjust whenever you retired yeah retirement everybody oh i'm gonna retire it's not worth it that's why i'm gonna start working again back in the back of the trash no no no sanitation no i'm actually looking now just to get into something simple nothing crazy uh you know i'm not one of those oh i need a big high paying just something basic yeah i just want to stay busy yeah because it's honestly dude it's not healthy when you're sitting around yeah you're just sitting around you know for two or three days and then you're like, oh shit.

2:07:00Yeah, I'll give it like two weeks. But then you're like, now what? And yeah, I do my lawn. Yeah, you start knowing your neighbors. You're taking a cat for a walk or something. You're like, what the fuck am I doing? Exactly. You know? Yeah. You're fucking selling lemonade in your driveway. It's fucking getting sad, bro. Nickel apiece. Yeah, you're out there selling lemonade during the fight from 1 to 2 p.m. No, my wife thinks I'm crazy because I take my lawn very seriously. Oh, yeah. But what am I going to do? The guy who's retired does. My lawn's fucking this. I need more water. I need more this.

2:07:33I need this. Oh, you're crazy. But what else am I going to do? Where did you meet your wife? Did you have her before you had the job? No. No. I was on the job, I think, five years when I met my wife. Just a bar scene. I would bring something up, but she would kill me if I told you. Well, I'll tell you, but you can't play it on the sign. You can't play it. Okay, I promise. Met her there. you know hello this that's about it then i started seeing around the bars my buddy and were you partying back then or no i was partying oh yeah that's me it was ugly oh bro i fucking you find me in a fucking just a neighborhood fucking house party it was do snorting stacker twos and fucking holding up a wall but see that's that's the old like stat now like i said we were in bars 15 16 years old bro oh yeah so like it started getting boring at 21 22 yeah but she was in college on staten island she went to wagner college and she was always in the bars my buddy god rest his soul you know didn't do so well with that partying end and uh he was dating her friend so she was like oh you gotta date wayne you gotta date wayne whatever you know we finally i'm wayne yeah i'm wayne i'm here i'm the guy but and then we just hit it off you know we started you know bullshitting she would tell people she'd probably still tell you today like oh he was following me around i'm like you probably were you know no but you you're i'm five years older than you right i've been in these bars for 10 years longer than you yeah don't tell me that uh these are my bars right this is my stomping grounds i think when you're tall people can always see you wherever you are i'm always above right so people are always like oh that guy's following me like i'm not following i'm just fucking over here yeah it's like that's the shitty part about being tall right that's a good point but now when did you break when did you tell your wife that you were working as a garbage or sanitation work did you have to sit her down and tell her oh no she knew okay yeah she pretty much knew but she must have it sounds such like a for somebody to be able to get up that much go do that job i think there's a ton of admiration in it probably you probably have to start to admire Like this fucking guy gets his job, his work done.

2:09:43Well, it's not easy in the sense that, like you say, it's, you have to, it's a commitment for 20 years or more. I know guys, 25, 30 years. But it's more of like you wake up and all you hear is downpouring. You still got to go. So it is. And like, I never wanted a pat on the back and like, screw that. You know, it was just more of knowing like how your day is going to go from the minute you wake up hearing pouring rain or, you know, it's going to snow today. All right. Well, I'll see you tonight at eight o 'clock at night. And you're leaving at six in the morning. I want to get home eight, nine o 'clock at night.

2:10:18So there wasn't, listen, it was good money. I think her family knew like, oh yeah, I'm dating this guy who works for sanitation. Oh, that's a great job. It's a city job. Like it's known. Right. But yeah. Yeah. You don't know that. I mean, that's one of the things that I'm so happy to learn is like, you don't know that there's a, you can make good money. You don't know that there's a pinch in it you don't know that you can fucking have a good time you don't know that you get over the smell so you don't even notice it anymore huh no wow don't even notice it and i could pick it out anyway like could you smell different types of trash from certain amounts of feet away you know what it is the maggots smell like i was saying is the killer you know and there are sometimes i have a backyard you know that we eat outside we throw the garbage and i don't throw it out right away it's like in a bag in a pail dude maggots will start crawling out of the pail maggots are gross huh oh i hate awful i used to be walking around there all in my arms they would they would come out of the truck splat on your arm like nasty blowing them off your arm while you're on the back of the truck it's part of the job was there like a wave of trash water that would come out on the cycle like i'm see i'm talking something kelly kelly slater would flirt with you know so this so this woman and i knew her from the neighborhood i went to school well i didn't go to school with her daughter but i knew her daughter from high school and used to hang out with her and her friends and she comes out she's like oh wayne i got can i can't lift this sofa and it was in the driveway i'm like yeah i'll get it go back inside downpouring so we throw the sofa in and we throw bags in now she's right next to me and i'm like don't stand there go somewhere else no no no no i want to get she's trying to help give us something you know for taking this stuff give a couple muffins or something it cycles dude from head to toe it was brown water she literally had maggots like on her face i was like get in the house and go take a shower she's like what is all this i was with her eyes closed oh i might just get in the fucking house i told you don't stand here you know that's the devil's back wall tell me you don't want that it just happened because we were uphill and and the rainy days now you're lifting every pail that doesn't have a lid Water is going in And it's just squashing around It's like sewage It's disgusting And all that water Is there a catch from the truck Or it all goes Because it was on the street No well We used to have drain pipes But then they soldered Like they welded them all shut Because like People would complain That trash was like Coming out on the street So you had to deal with it Our thing was You wanted to find a mattress At that point So you would throw the mattress in Squeeze it And it would sop up All the water on the bad days so there's some there's some strategies to the game listen just because we're gollors man we ain't stupid yeah right of course not yeah i never think that those guys are dumb i don't know what i think i think it's just also the the tough part about that job is if you're just like someone who lives somewhere you don't get to go so quick you know it's tough to get time with them you know like you don't you know like cops stay around and fucking you know or whatever bullshit with you or like in the neighborhood yeah when i was growing up like some girl would all you know a cop would always be flirting with somebody's some lady or something her husband's missing or whatever and they probably did it but they ain't telling nobody and now they're over here flirting and fucking splitting you know cutting up donuts with a plastic knife on the hood of the fucking cruiser you know flirting with miss cheryl over here who's always all dude this lady by us we get all fucking liquored up she'd be drinking daiquiris and she'd lay she'd start her car she had this fucking like car that was like a hot rod or something she'd start that bitch with these short shorts and then lay on the fucking hood up and fucking say like pervy shit out loud like don't you miss me she'd say don't you miss me and we didn't even fucking know her like who the fuck is this lady bitch I'm eight but we'd sit out there and watch her bro you know everybody has their thing but yeah cops you get to you end up talking with them you know You know, there's some communication, but y 'all's job, it's kind of just hit and run.

2:14:26It's hit and run. And even the guys I have now, you know, like I give them a$100 tip during Christmas. Listen, I did the job. Like, you know, I know it sucks. The rainy days. Yeah, there's good days. There's a lot more good days than, you know, the rainy days. And once you get wet, you get wet. You're done. But like I have people now tell me, what do you mean you tipped them? I'm like, dude, these guys who pick my stuff up that's private, They're not making what I was making in the city. And it's a lot, man. They're doing you a service, and they always say, everybody's always lying. Oh, well, that's their job.

2:15:02They have to pick it up. They got to take it. And I would tell people, this ain't my job. I'm here to pick up your household garbage. I'm not here to take all your demo from your construction job on your house. And that was always where the fine line of arguing, fighting with people, I ain't going to fight with you. It's garbage. Like, why are we fighting over college? Right. Just get a dumpster, and I'm not picking this up. Yeah. Case settled, done. Yeah, or if somebody tried to go to blows with you or something? Yeah, a few times. Women or men? Well, the woman, it was a husband and wife, and they had bags of tile out.

2:15:37And the bags, and - Get the fuck out of here with that. She was just an asshole, this woman. And literally, the tile is sticking out the bag. Oh, yeah. So that's like razor blades, porcelain tile. I don't know if you've ever been cut by porcelain. It sucks. Mm-mm. and she's like, oh, you're not going to take this? Yeah. It's your job. I said, listen, I'm not taking this shit. You can throw it in. Oh, fine, I'll throw it in. Yeah, look, big, strong guy, you know, sanitation worker can't throw it in, but I could, and she's rubbing it all up on her belly and shit. I'm like, good looking, you animal, you know?

2:16:11Turns out she's a nurse. Oh, yeah, nursing a fucking biscuit all morning. I bit you out of her mind, bro. sorry that's kind of mean i'm getting mean no and she says you know and it was fucked up what she said she was like you know you know what if you ever come into my hospital and you need help you know fuck you i said you know and now like i said i'm not a blow my top it's garbage well i'm not gonna fight with you you want to throw it in throw it in i don't give a fuck i said you know what bitch fuck you yeah right to her face and i fucking closed the hopper and she still had 10 15 bags left and I fucking drove away.

2:16:44I told my partner to drive. My boss calls. He's like, what are you doing? I said, let me guess. The nurse called. He's like, I don't know who the nurse is, but this woman called and she's calling. She's got 311 on the line. This and that. And I'm like, dude, this is what she said to me. So I blew my lid and told her to go fuck herself. He's like, listen, my boss calls. He's like, just let her throw the rest of the bags in. I'm like, I don't want to go back there. So we went back anyway. Wow. Because I just don't want to deal with, I don't want to fight on my other end. So I go back to now her burly 6 '8 husband's there.

2:17:19Uh-uh. And he gets in my face. Right? And I'm like, dude, you do not want to do this. I said, listen, I'm a garbage man. That's all fine and dandy. But you don't want to see what other part there is. Yeah. My old 67-year-old partner jumps out the truck, gets right in his face, starts pushing him. Uh-uh. He's like, dude, you get the fuck back in the house. We'll throw this shit in. Get the fuck out of my partner's face. Yeah. I was like, good for you. Yeah. Good for you. But you had that here and there. Yeah. People want to fight. It's garbage. What are we fighting over garbage for? Yeah, so wild, man.

2:17:52It's interesting. I'm trying to think if there's anything else that I don't know or want to understand about the job. Oh, if you had boots on, how do you keep the water from getting in the boots? Oh, you don't. Trash water. Like I said, you had rain boots, but those were regular boots, but just been soaked since. and you just put them like on top of your locker, hope they dry by the next rainstorm. Because if not, wet boots suck. But what are you going to do? There's one time this guy goes, why are you running through the street? It was raining. I say, because I hate wet boots. I turn around. I'm like, I think I said something like, I hate wet boots.

2:18:25You know that feeling? I turn around. I didn't realize he was in a wheelchair. I'm like, this motherfucker probably can't even feel his legs. I'm like, damn it. Buddy ain't got to worry about wet boots either. Exactly. But that's the thing. it's like dodging you you tell people i'm dodging raindrops yeah oh yeah but everything got wet dodging raindrops that's a good term um so your wife was good with it what kind of line of work did she get into she was in medical sales um medical device sales so like when you have surgeries and stuff she sold all like the nuts and bolts and stuff for a company but now she's doing it back again she had went to just into sales for uh like smaller companies but now she's back doing medical device you know she's she's always been a hard worker yeah my wife i'll give her a shout out wendy she's always been a hard worker you know our kids are awesome parker and jackson with an x jackson with an x yeah like uh jackson who's the starting quarterback for old miss

2:19:30Jackson Dart Is that with an X? Is that J-A-X-O-N? J-A-X-S-O-N Yeah, no, we left the S off Oh, wow, yeah, fuck yeah, dude Jackson on You're like Elon Musk, dude Yeah, yeah, yeah Wild and shit Okay, so you got you a family, dude Parker and Jackson, yeah, my boys Have you enjoyed being a dad? Is it exciting? Love it Yeah That's the only, that's like the shitty part about now going back to work You know, I love having my boys in the morning Jackson, my six-year-old's hysterical, dude Oh, really? Oh, from 5.30 on, bro. He does not stop. We joke with the 10-year-old. He joke all the time. We're like, dude, there's got to be an off button.

2:20:05And it's kind of, dada, dada. Like, do you see this? Dada, asking me questions while I'm getting lunch ready for them and breakfast. It's just nonstop. But I love it. I don't mind any part of it. I do anything for them, of course, because they're my kids. But that's going to be the hardest part of me missing now the mornings and then missing when they get home from school. Yeah. That's going to be, you know, if I start getting home later, that's going to be the shitty part. Yeah. Yeah, it's a bummer. A lot of people have to deal with that, you know? I think it's just, it's unfortunate that that's kind of how our society is, you know?

2:20:40I wonder if we're supposed to be like that or what, you know, like human beings are supposed to be like. You know, like, you know, you think about the old days of like when people probably lived around a campfire and everybody was fucking home. but you were living around a campfire too, you know? So I think that was probably interesting. Yeah, what would you say to somebody who's thinking like, could I be a sanitation worker? Ah, more power to you. Yeah. Listen, like I said, it's a New York thing. If you live in the tri-state, you know, in New York, not tri-state, if you live in New York, it's like a known thing.

2:21:18Take all the tests. It's the best thing. I know a buddy of mine, his daughter came on. And he waited long enough because his daughter did so good on the test that his daughter got on the job. Oh, they got to work together. So they got to work together. It was a big thing by the city. You know, they went out and then he retired like a week later. You know, so like, listen, you know, when you know what's coming of the job, you know how good it is, but you don't want to tell people. Yeah. We always said, don't tell nobody how good this job is. And here you are. And yeah, there are grueling shitty parts about it, but the job was great, man.

2:21:48Yeah. Like I would never curse the job in that aspect of it. Well, the fact that you had to win a lottery to even get a chance to take the job is freaking pretty unreal. Well, now they don't do that no more. Now they allow all of them to take the test and see how the lists are. But there's 120 ,000 people taking the test now. That shows you how much people want this. And somebody called me. They're like, oh, yo, my nephew took the test. I'm like, all right, how do you do? Oh, he's got a 93. I'm like, oh, what's his list number? 40 ,000. Like he's done. Mike dude The job has to die Six times over Yeah There's 6 ,000 guys on the job So everyone has to go to work That day die The next day 6 ,000 Die Like so Does he really I said If you got a 40 If you got that Kind of number On that test You should look for A different profession Yeah Gosh Yeah that's You're not it What was it like During COVID Doing trash Do you remember I just retired Oh you did So you got to miss that The guys loved it.

2:22:49They did? They loved it. The money was crazy. These guys, I'm telling you, I know a guy moved to Florida, $90 ,000 a year,$95 ,000 a year's pensionist. He's almost bringing six figures and retired. How do you get your pension to be higher? They take your, out of five years, they take your best three years and average it. So if this dude was doing, you know, two, two, two, you know, now they add that in and the average is 100 grand. Wow. You know, so that's where you get half of it. So you get half of your base for three years. So this guy's got another buddy,$80 ,000 for the year. That's what he's going to get every year, plus the benefits and all that.

2:23:28He'll get$80 ,000 a year. How long does a pension last? Until you die. Uh-uh. But you could - We got to get it. But take the test. You got to get a New York address, though. Yeah. And I wouldn't do that. Yeah, and I have to pay those taxes, too. They crush you. That's crazy, bro. But yeah, that's part of it, though. You build up your pension to get to a point where you'll leave. A lot of guys don't leave, like I said earlier. They don't make it to, you know. But you could also sign off. Like I could have given my wife like a percentage of my pension for the rest of her life. Let's see how she does.

2:24:08Yeah, well, you know. A little early for that, Wendy. Yeah, I'm not going to count her. Yeah, exactly. Wendy's good. yeah windy will be fun now what if you die like doing like in the line of service or whatever does your wife like get a flag or anything do they like do they is there like a um yeah what's that like they really don't i mean granted it's a sad thing they do a whole memorial thing like well like line the streets with sanitation workers when they're bringing your casket like any fine you know yeah um but it's nothing like i told you they get i think two years of service so two years of pay so if they get 120 000 that's it you don't get their retirement no because you're gone yeah so if that's not in line and then you die like if you're working it's not the way it rolls wow yeah i know a guy you know unbelievable he they forced him to the clinic we had this clinic at work where you would go and these quack doctors would tell you you feel better then they're like you know it's like they got the the jedi shit oh yeah oh you feel good go back to work if you were hurt and they forced this guy to work and he fucking dropped dead on the stand down ferry going to the going to the clinic i felt awful for his wife and he was such a good dude why and who has those quack doctors the city oh because they want you back on the city they want back on the job so the i think the city what they do is they they look for guys that lost their private practices like as doctors and they and they hire them for pennies on the dollar so they hire those people then yeah and they're quack doctors wow they suck yeah dude i had my finger um i was picking up one night and now you know you're running through the streets because it snowed so now you're finally picking garbage up and not a lot of people put garbage out after the snow.

2:25:59It's like they become like hermits and just stay in their house. So they don't have garbage. Right. I grab a sewing machine. I throw it in the truck and it still had a needle. So it fish hooked my thumb. So my whole thumb like flapped over this way, blood pouring down my arm. So I go have stitches. I literally still had the stitches in my finger and they're like, oh, you could go back to work. Wow. So you have to kind of threaten them like, all right, cool. Put your name here. Cause when I get gangrene from work, oh, you could do desk work in the garage. I'm like, dude, is the dirtiest place on earth a garage and a sanitation you know garage it's gross you know so the desk and just filthy nobody cleans them so until you threaten them with like oh i'll get a lawyer you know i'll sue your ass or i take another few days off yeah like it's just that's crazy you have to fucking threaten to sue doctors who are just trying to get you back out there you can't even take care of yourself but then you have the other side of the coin where guys will sit out from fucking trying to sit out for seven years.

2:26:59Because they got a hip flex or whatever. I had a guy, he had like his cut that he would go outside the building and scrape it against the building outside and just go back in again another three days. Still bleeding, doc. Okay, take another three days. Damn, it's like, dude. But then it sucks because there's guys that are fucked up. Yeah. You know, like they threatened my job once when I really hurt my back. I had my shoulder done and they were like, oh, we're going to force you off the job because I was on light duty and shit for like 18 months. and it's like you're gonna force me off the job like i'm in the year 16 like what they didn't give a you're a number that's it could people any handicapped people do your job as in can people in a wheelchair be a garbage man or no not a wheelchair per se but i think there was some handicapped motherfuckers on the job yeah yeah the way they well a lot of autism people do the job too i wouldn't doubt it you know listen autism it's nothing uh you know laugh about joke about Both my kids are on the spectrum.

2:27:54Oh, yeah. We're on it. But they're awesome. I was probably on it. Yeah, like you said, they didn't test for that shit back in the day. Fuck no, dude. We were just on it. Well, that's what they were like. When we grew up, they were like, oh, he's either shy, oh, he's shy, or oh, he's fucking crazy. Like, you were either one or the other. They never said like, oh, yeah, he's going to be an astronaut. Like, he's real smart. No. He's shy. He sits in the corner. The other kid's hopping off the walls. and that's what it was yeah you yeah you just hope that you had something in the middle probably exactly or at least that god gave you one of each all your adhds elemental peas all that shit oh now you got a fucking kid yeah you don't even know dude you know it's fucking unreal these days the letters they come up with it's just it's it's almost like the other group oh yeah they're just like come on man how many more letters are you gonna you know it's just everybody is it in It's everything.

2:28:52Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Like you got a guy who's not fucking D.H.D. R.E.B. You know. R.E.S.P.E.C.T.B.Q. I'm like what? You're a fucking. Just say you're a gay Beyonce fan. You know what I'm saying? It's just everything's fucking crazy now, man. It's nuts, man. Yeah. Look at this. This is the term now.

2:29:21lgbtqqip2saa up down up down select start select start so you're a contra fan no it's crazy you got a bat flying around in here oh yeah bro that's free bats dude from the city that's our pension bro also it's getting close to halloween yeah so they're flying around so we let them in what was it like what were some of the holidays like though what was the holiday Was there a holiday or was there a day of the year when you got the most trash? After any holidays. Okay. So like, because you would skip the pickups. I see. So like Christmas, if we were off, they would pick up the next night. Okay. And we used to have to go in 12 to 8 to go pick it up.

2:29:58And honestly, they would steal garbage. Like my first year on the job, I never realized that guys stole garbage. Wow. So because on those days, you just had to load the truck as fast as you wanted to, as you can. And then you were done for the night. Okay. So dudes would literally, it was like smoke coming out of the tires. Take off out of the garage. Go throw hustle. Get as much garbage as you can. And then just to be done. You load all, you know, top off your truck. You're done for the day. You're stealing garbage. Then you pull up. Like, now I don't know anything. I pull up to the, and it's all gone.

2:30:29I'm like, oh, some nice person took all my garbage. But then they're like, oh, yeah, now you have to go do more house to house stuff. Because they took all your big, heavy sausage bags. So now you got to literally look for garbage. It's like hide and seek for garbage and shit. Wow. But it was just get as much as you could, fill your truck up, you're done. Yeah, and that was during the holidays. Right. I did Y2K. That was a disaster. Yeah, what was Y2K like for a garbage bag? I had three months on the job. They loaded us. They were like, oh, everybody go to this garage, Manhattan 7 on the west side.

2:30:59So I'm like, all right, cool, near Times Square. Oh, we'll be out there for Times Square. It's going to be awesome. I was so happy I signed up. And then I'm looking at my watch. I'm like, yeah, I'm just hanging out here with you guys. Happy New Year. Because they didn't send us out there until like almost 1.30. Because they didn't know if the world was going to end? Well, not even that. They just let everybody leave now Times Square. Then we come in and clean up. Oh, yeah. And by the time we got out there, dude, that was the first time I thought like, wow, people really do like us. Like chicks wanted pictures with us, like with brooms.

2:31:30Like people taking pictures with chicks drunk and shit. They're banging on the windows of the big bus that we come in. like oh yeah sanitation's here meanwhile I'm like what the fuck man I thought I was gonna be in Times Square ball drop sick nah now I'm coming in cleaning up piss bottles and shit on the floor oh yeah but that was a fun day yeah you know Sandy when that storm hit Hurricane Sandy ooh that was a nasty one that was another you know we were going down there and helping people now their whole lawns their whole front their houses were covered the lawns they were bringing everything out right Like couches, you know, clothes.

2:32:07I felt bad for these people. Living room. The whole living room. Everything. Everything. So we would do our regular routes and then run over there and help the people and like hand pick the garbage up. So one day I told my boss, I'm like, dude, this is, you're not down there. I'm down there. This is useless. Like there's piles of garbage. We need the big machines. Yeah. Like, so he's like, all right, listen, they agreed to it. So I convoyed seven front of loaders down there through the first block I turn on. I almost cried like that's how you feel for people like piles of shit man their stuff their whole house is on the fucking lawn and we're just coming in to fucking throw it away oh so you're a service but even the service you're providing is kind of painful yeah it was shitty but you get knuckleheads in New York like oh yeah the storm surge was coming and they're like oh let's go see the waves yeah cool dude there were$100 ,000 cars littered all over the street with the windows down.

2:33:04That's how you knew they got caught because there's this thing in cars now when it gets water damaged, the windows go down automatically. So somebody can't get caught in like water or something like that. Oh yeah, make everything easy on people. Keys were in them, everything. Like the key fobs. So this guy I knew, he said, do you have a chain on the front end loader? I'm like, yeah. So I had to hook trains up to like brand new fucking Audis, Mercedes and drag them to clear the streets. Boats in the middle of the road. It was like playing with Tonka, bro. It was awesome. But I did feel bad in the sense of.

2:33:37Right. You still got to do all that. But still, it was like it almost. Yeah, it must have felt like another universe. Yeah. I'm like, wow, I'm dragging$100 ,000 cars around by a chain. Hook them up to the tires. The wheels are screeching. What about during 9-11? What was that like? That sucked. That was shitty. I didn't lose anybody. But it was crazy because my sisters. Sorry. My sisters all worked in the city. and we couldn't get in touch with him. So I had just gotten home from work, and I just worked 12 to 8, and my buddy calls me, and he's like, dude, this fucking idiot just, you know, flew into the trade center.

2:34:16I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, I just got out of the shower. Like, I'm just going, I want to go to bed. I'm working 12 to 8. It's crazy, you know? So next thing you know, another one comes. My father calls me. Never heard the guy cry in his life. And my buddy at the time had a boat. He's like, get that motherfucking boat and put it in the water. He wanted to go get his daughters. And it was fucked up. The towns were crazy. They were fucking going after like all these Indian guys and all. It was crazy. It was nuts. Wow. And I was supposed to go down there with a front and toe, with a big machine and somebody, you could say stole it.

2:34:51One of my buddies jumped in the truck and fucking took the truck. And he actually, when he got back, he goes, dude, I helped you out. He goes, that was the most awful fucking thing I've ever seen in my life. because we went right away and it was still bodies laying around like parts. And, and you know, a lot of those guys wound up with issues, man, you know, with all kinds of breathing issues and all kinds of shit. So it was shitty in New York at that point. Yeah. Cause you guys have to, did you guys have to do some of the cleanup or no? We did some of it. We did hands-on stuff. Like they didn't bring any machines into a long time because they were still looking for people.

2:35:27Yeah. But, and we ran out of the landfill. they put these big tents up domes and they were bringing material from there and they were finding like a tooth yeah and like claiming people because there was so many people missing and i knew a few people like from the bar scene and family friends that you know passed away and it sucks it's just shitty yeah and there was never really any retribution i felt like in a weird way also by america you know not that there needs to be i'm not saying that yeah but it was always like they never exactly pinpoint you know it's almost like they never even gave solace in that sense no yeah it's you know it was like a lot of people thought like that saudi arabia was but there was you know they kind of loosely blamed it on kind of fucking bin uh no no who's saying you get them all mixed up now it's like who's next i know it's so shitty you know but they loosely kind of blamed it on him and went and maybe he did do it they just didn't tell you know it's like man that was so fucking weird to leave america kind of hanging out to dry like that too in a weird way like yeah well who the fuck did this you're not telling you're telling me you don't know yet you know somebody's got to know something you know that night 22 people that were involved in it who the fuck did it and there's so many crazy things like new shit coming out like all this uh with all these documents with it you know and and i really even when it comes on i can't even watch the shit anymore because i was there like saw the dust like from staten island You know, soar, you know, soar all the dust and the smoke and stuff.

2:37:00But it's crazy now. They just keep digging up stuff. Now they have new views of where the planes went in. Like people coming up with these new camera angles. These trade center buildings. Like nothing hit them. Seven, like the smaller ones. How did it collapse? And now you're hearing this old conspiracy theory that it was worth it. Oh, I forgot who it was. The guy who owned it. like owed so much money or something. And it was all being put through at that location. Also in Washington, DC where they hit the plane there too. There's so many theories out there, man. And it's just shitty because you did that.

2:37:36You could have dropped the planes at night. Right. Told everybody, yo, fire alarm, let everybody run. If that was the deal. Why, why'd you kill people? And, but that's people. Cause now that's everybody's focus is on that. Yeah. It's not so much that why did these buildings just collapse out of nowhere? Oh, did so-and-so own, like, owe money on it, and this was his way out? Yeah, you don't know. I mean, there's some people that's so dirty, you know? And some guy, yeah. You could give a guy a couple hundred dollars. He'll fly a plane into something. Some dudes, you know? I know a crop duster that'll fucking, you know, that'll fucking zero in on your ex-wife's apartment, dude.

2:38:15Yeah. For probably six days. For sure. um wayne i think we probably learned everything that we can man it's really interesting um i wonder if it would be really different in different parts of america you think the job or do you think it would probably be the same across the board no i think it's definitely different because it's on a private you know end where those guys are making i work for a private i think i was making a hundred dollars a day like just but i was i got it down to two three hours so whatever i was making$30 an hour. I don't care. But those guys don't make the money like New York.

2:38:52There's certain, I think, like just around me, like Newark or Elizabeth, like where there are heavy unions, they'll be unionized. But once you bring the privates in, if they're picking up your garbage, probably here and like near my house, they don't make that kind of money. So it's a different animal. And they don't even use guys. Like I said, they use the arm that lifts the whole thing up, dumps it in the truck near my house yeah so it's definitely different all over the country it's changing man so even automation is killing that industry huh yeah wow you have places like new york like i said you can't right you can't just not enough space right you're always gonna need somebody yeah there's just not enough space to get you know to the garbage do you guys have beef with any of the other like civil groups like is any like dot cops firemen is there any real fucking beef on the streets or it's kind of like i personally never had an issue yeah like i said i said my piece about the fireman i'll probably get shit from my friends for that one it's funny dude but hey look bro it's all love and they know it's true yes they know it's true bro same look it's a lot of fucking calendar models out there bro it's a lot of dudes fucking eating hot dogs all day and then shooting up a zimp at my you know so i wanted to do it i wanted to do it once that uh i wanted to do a calendar of like the big guys on my job yeah there's some big fucking guys yeah are they really don't but why could wouldn't it be hard to meet a fucking garbage man oh man dude well i just told you you're sitting around eating all day there's always cake there's office guys big dudes man yeah i mean four five six hundred pounds and some of them still wiggle down the block oh there's not so much yeah other you know they find that spot like oh i'm gonna go work with this guy well i'm gonna go work with that guy like in an office or something and that's why it's like yeah you could say that's what gave us like gives us bad name of like oh yeah they're all just fat ugly guys yeah and it's like nah you know there's a lot of guys on my job that don't really take care of themselves they're lunatics with like health and stuff oh yeah it's popular these days well look man i'm grateful for your job before i forget what about uh drugs did people ever find any drugs you think no we always used to look in the couches and stuff yeah because you never know you hear stories of like bundles or coke kilos and shit laying around i yeah i've hidden drugs and couches and never gotten it back yeah no i wouldn't doubt it if they're out there yeah but no we never that we used to say like oh yeah thanks for the tip because change would always come out oh yeah like nickels and dimes and quarters and shit.

2:41:37Yeah. But people have lost, like, they drop, like, oh, so-and-so, and that's another part of, like I said, with the Tyvek suits. So if you drop something real quick, if you drop something in the garbage, wedding rings, money, anything expensive, you drop in the garbage, you call the garage. Hey, I dropped on so-and-so block. I dropped something in the garbage. They'll call the truck out. Hey, stop picking garbage up. But you have to dig through it. Nuh-uh. Uh-huh. You do or I do? The owner. The caller. You want your ring back? No problem. At 5 o 'clock tonight, they're going to bring that truck to a location on the landfill in an open area.

2:42:16They're going to dump it all on the floor and have fun looking. Have you gotten to watch somebody look for something before? I've seen down below because we drop into a pit when we dump in San Island. And there was one family doing it. I don't know if they ever found it. Yeah, bring your family with a bunch of fucking buddies. Well, like a husband and wife. Not kids. I said family meal like 100. If you drop some bullshit and you're fucking checking your kid out of school to help you find a money. Need all the hands and eyes I could get. Yeah, dude, that's unreal. But no, I knew a woman. She dropped 700 bucks.

2:42:48She was going to the bank and she put the garbage out. The thing was in her hand and it fell in the pail and she got it back. Wow. She found it. They should play music and do a live feed on that. I would bet people would pay to watch that, bro. And speed it up. Yeah.

2:43:04yeah listen they do it they let people do it um wayne i really appreciate it dude thank you so much for your time brother oh thanks for having me yeah it's awesome yeah it's been really really cool and um yeah i i think that it's a it's an admirable feat and that some people can do it and you can get in there and get out with a pension and and then go on the rest of your life yeah you know definitely well worth it yeah you heard it here first guys thank you so much have a good one brother you too thank you Theo yeah man now I'm just floating on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves I must be cornerstone oh but when I reach that ground I'll share this peace of mind I found I can feel it In my bones But it's gonna take