This Past Weekend - E467 NYC Garbage Man

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

Wayne Owen is a retired New York sanitation worker who spent 20 years serving Manhattan and Staten Island, where he was born and raised.  This week Theo is joined by New York City garbage man Wayne ...Owen to learn all about the world of trash. They chat about how he got started in sanitation, what it’s like on the route, people’s biggest pet peeves with garbage men, the worst fights he’s gotten in, what it was like on 9/11, things he’s learned about people from their garbage, and who’s hiding bodies in the dump…  ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com ------------------------------------------------- Sponsored By: Celsius: Go to the Celsius Amazon store to check out all of their flavors. #CELSIUSBrandPartner #CELSIUSLiveFit  https://amzn.to/3HbAtPJ  DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code THEO. New customers can get $200 in bonus bets instantly for betting just $5. ExpressVPN: Go to http://expressvpn.com/theo to get 3 extra months of ExpressVPN for free.  Füm: Head to http://tryfum.com/THEO to save an additional 10% off your order today. BetterHelp: This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp — go to http://betterhelp.com/theo to get 10% off your first month. HexClad: Go to http://hexclad.com/THEO to get 10% off.  ------------------------------------------------- Music: "Shine" by Bishop Gunn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3A_coTcUek&ab_channel=BishopGunn ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: tpwproducer@gmail.com Hit the Hotline: 985-664-9503 Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: https://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips Shorts Channel: https://bit.ly/3ClUj8z ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers/ Producer: Ben https://www.instagram.com/benbeckermusic/  Producer: Colin https://instagram.com/colin_reiner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:47 please play responsibly and have a good time with your resume licensee partner go and get like Charles who is in a 21 plus age or five years in white Ontario C-Sport.racking.com slash a well term for elderly terms and responsible gaming resources. That's it. I'm sure it's a great job. I'll be in a positive spot. I want to let you know I will be in Las Vegas this weekend October 27th
Starting point is 00:01:00 and 28 that resorts world will be excited to see you there as well dates in Norfolk, Virginia, Ron, up Virginia, Huntington, West Virginia, Evansville, Indiana, Huntsville, Alabama, Atlanta, Georgia. Those are all on sale now. TheoVon.com slash T-O-U-R. That's TheoVon.com slash tour. Thank you for the support. Today's guest is a garbage man out of Staten Island. Recently voted one of America's top 70 islands. He is a man who spent 20 years in the Garb business and he knows it.
Starting point is 00:01:45 He knows it, baby. He knows Pales and Bens, baby Pales and Bens. He's done it all. He collected garbage in New York City and outside of the city. We're gonna learn everything you wanna know about it. Today's guest is garbage man, Mr. Wayne Owen I'm the star. I was singing. I'm the star. I'm the star. I'm the star.
Starting point is 00:02:30 I'm the star. Way know. What's up to you, thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for coming in, dude. So you're a garbage man. Correct. Do you guys have a term that you guys use within the industry? Well, we used to go with sanitation
Starting point is 00:02:47 engineer. Okay. That was our thing. It made just sound a little more, like needed and wanted, yeah, compared to a garbage man. Yeah. And I guess we'll find out, I guess, even through the course of this chat, if it's, you know, where does it kind of land? I think, you know, and that's one of the reasons, yeah, I just want to learn all about the industry. So you, um, you, and what area were you in? I started them and Hatton grew up in Staten Island. Okay. Started them and Hatton, I did it almost two years and then switched over to Staten Island and
Starting point is 00:03:17 finished my career there. Okay. 18, 18 years in Staten Island. Damn, you did 18 years, bro. Thank you for your service. Yeah, thanks. First of all, so how do you get into it? How does it even start? Like, is it a family thing? Like your father picks you, you know, just like picks you up when you're young and fucking put you in a recycling bin or something like, you know, how does it is? It's, it's rule with them in New York. Like, you know, you take the city test. Okay. College don't work out. You fold back on a city job, you know, sanitation, police, you know, Feynman. So those are different city tests.
Starting point is 00:03:49 So those are different options. Yep. And you different tests. Okay. So a lot of people that don't go to college in New York, they'll fall back into that and those are one of the options. Correct. So you take a different test. So you took a sanitation test. Yes.
Starting point is 00:04:01 Wow. And that was, it was sad, but it was, it was a joke. Really? Like, one of the questions, I'll never forget. Never forget. How would you pick up this pile of dirt? And there was like a garbage truck, like, you can't use that. And then there was like a shovel with a broom, which of course, that's what you would use.
Starting point is 00:04:19 And then just like a rake, like just craziness. Oh, yeah. And it's like, but people get these things wrong man. You never know. Oh yeah, you see somebody rake and dirt all the time. You know, and you use a yellow slur at him out the window for me. But so you take the test, is it,
Starting point is 00:04:36 how many people go take the test, do you take it at like a center, do you, is it like, it's not, like where do they do it? It's not like a mad, an MSG or something like that. No, no, no, no, they use like public schools, like anything that they have available. Okay. Schools, grammar school, whatever they have.
Starting point is 00:04:51 Okay, so you roll up like the night before you get a lot of sleep, do you like show up with like, you know, are you kind of prepared for? Do you think it's gonna be so easy? No, yeah. They get you the book, like they have a book to take the test. Okay.
Starting point is 00:05:03 And like after the second page, you're like, all right, I can't read this book. Aw, damn. It's worse than when you went into reading the book, you're like, wait, what's going on? You know, so yeah, my test, 100,000, over 100,000 people signed up, but they did a lottery. So, and everybody has to pay the 30, 35 dollars,
Starting point is 00:05:24 whatever it is. When you sign up, you have to pay the 30, 35 hours, whatever it is. When you sign up, you have to pay. Yeah. You send your, you know, you're form in with the money. But my test, they only, and they only did it this one time. They only let 30,000 people take the test. So those other 70,000 didn't even get to take it. And but they took their money. They don't. It's, it's, yeah, it's just like anything else. It's just like anything else. They get their money in. They'll get their money. Wow, bro, that's crazy.
Starting point is 00:05:50 So now you got 70,000 people who are pissed at the city. Wow. Okay, so you take the test, you're in there. Now how long does it take to get your score? It takes a few months. I'd say a few months until you get your score. I mean they'll come on. If I wish I was trying to get a test to bring it up.
Starting point is 00:06:10 Yeah really? It was a joke. And I was actually in there with high school friends. And they were running out. I was the last dude in the tent. Like I'm like what's going on here? And I'm not the smartest you know guy in the world. But he neither.
Starting point is 00:06:22 I'm like what is going on? So I rushed through the last two questions. Yeah. Guess which ones I got through the last two questions. Yeah. Guess which ones I got wrong. That those two. That's it. Wow. So I got a 103 out of 105, almost a perfect score. Oh, dang, okay.
Starting point is 00:06:33 So now, are you look at like a, you come in as a pretty high rank then? Like, are you like? Yeah, so they give like veterans and stuff extra, like credit, you know, well deserved. And like I think my list moment, I want to say was like 348. Okay. Out of, you know, the 30,000 or 15, I forget what the number was. So you're in the top 400. Yeah. Wow. Okay. I was hired within a year. Okay. And so you so you still are waiting a year to get hired. Yeah. And what is why is
Starting point is 00:07:03 there is a no job positions? What is it? Is it a busy industry? Yeah, well, you got to wait till people retire. Oh, okay. You know, they have a set number and that's what they go by. Okay. All right, so you're ready. So somebody finally retires or something happens to them
Starting point is 00:07:18 and then now you get called in, right? Yeah. Where were you when you got the call? I was probably just home doing something stupid. Yeah. Yeah. I was, you know, I've done that. I was still working in Manhattan doing like I was a court runner for my cousin. Okay. So I, you know, I was working. Yeah. But, you know, my mother said, listen, you could be retired in 20 years, you got to take it. I was 21. Wow. I wanted to, you know, you know know what 21 year olds do yeah nothing
Starting point is 00:07:47 It's great no, but you want to go out party and like that's where your life starts right? You know like all parties and But I grew up in St. Alan where we were going to boss of 16 17 years old right So you did do it all that yeah, and so who yet? Did your mother say look? I think is this something you should do. Oh,. She was like, no, you're doing this. Oh, wow. But thankfully enough, because she saw the end of it. Right. She said, do you want to be working to, you know, 60, 70, 80 years old?
Starting point is 00:08:12 You know, is that really what you want? Yeah. So there is the light at the end. But you got to Andy do frames. Yeah. Listen, it's better than any other job. I'll put it that way. Wow. Okay. Well, I got to than any other job. I'll put it that way. Wow.
Starting point is 00:08:25 Okay. Well, I got to know more than, man. So, all right. So, you get in, you're higher, you're excited, you get your first day. Like, how does that really go? And do you go to like a training camp or whatever? Do you guys?
Starting point is 00:08:36 Yeah, they send you for the driving training. Okay. And they teach you on dumb trucks. Okay. So, that's like two, three weeks that you do your road test, you get you CDL, you know, your license to drive the trucks. Okay. So that's like two, three weeks that you do your roadtash, you get you see the else, you know, your license to drive the trucks. Okay. Now then like two days they'll bring out and this was in Randall's Island. Okay. And they want, I think they did two days. They bring a garbage truck out there. Okay. There's two steering wheels.
Starting point is 00:09:00 There's two steering wheels in the truck. There's two steering wheels. And you got to put like pick which one you would use. No, Well, no, it all depended on what street you were on. Like if you were picking the right side of the street up, you could drive from the right so you're close. Wow. You know, so you can know, because that's the biggest thing on the job. You've got to put that thing where you're part and want it to make the day go easier.
Starting point is 00:09:18 Okay. If I got to start dragging garbage around cars and everything else, now we're not having a good day. And then when you get back in the truck, there's beef when you're in the cabin. Yeah, oh yeah. Wow. Yeah, I, I, there were a few guys that, and they're good friends of mine.
Starting point is 00:09:31 Yeah. I would let them know. Yeah, that's beautiful. Oh yeah, we need that. That's what we need to see. It's like instead of cash cab, we need to see, you know, that would be,
Starting point is 00:09:41 call you as a sanitation cab violence, bro. Yeah, there were some bad ones. Yeah, that's beautiful, bro. No, well, years ago when I first got on, they used to have like a one bench, like across the truck. Okay. They got rid of those. So it was just a left side and a right side.
Starting point is 00:09:57 Okay. You mostly drive from the left to Manhattan. Okay. You know, driving from the right that was frowned upon, it just because everything is different from driving to on the right side. You've got. It just because everything is different from driving to on the right side. You've got to it's a whole different driving situation. Oh, yeah. Every now and then you meet some fellow trying to drive from the right. But in Stan Island, it was like a law. Like you had to drive from the right. Okay. So there's certain places
Starting point is 00:10:21 where you got to get over to the so in that instance, you would just get over to the other side of the car and for that length of the truck Yeah, there's like a little route and you hit okay, it just switches the now you drive from that side wow Dude today's truck still have that yes, okay, okay great. Okay cool. I didn't know that man It's really interesting because yeah, dude one time I had to take a driver's head or whatever and they had the dude over there You know and this I think the car was in was like It was a Toyota Tercelle, bro, and the trunk was missing. I remember in the dude's car So there was this total wind current like constantly like it like just happening in the vehicle, you know and And so yeah, and I remember driving that just out of sheer fear like this guy's out
Starting point is 00:11:06 of his fucking mind, you know, and he popped a break and kind of smile at me and said, I'm like, this dude's fucking flirting with me. I'm trying to learn, you know, this dude is trying to, you know, touch a child or whatever. All right. So you get the first day, man. How does your first day on the job go? They literally so so my garage, they tell you, hey, show up on this time, 6 a.m.
Starting point is 00:11:28 West Side, 38th Avenue. You know, Manhattan Six was my first garage. So I'm like, all right, over near Javitsano. Okay. All right, so it's right, right, a block from down from there. Okay, so you get down there, do you go down there a lot of no? No, okay.
Starting point is 00:11:41 I, when you work in Manhattan, you want to stay out of Manhattan. Okay. You deal with it all week, you deal with nonsense. I, when you work in Manhattan, you wanna stay out of Manhattan. Okay. You deal with it all week, you deal with nonsense. Yeah. Anytime I work in Manhattan, I just never wanted a party in Manhattan. Yeah, I can't stand it. I can't stand it.
Starting point is 00:11:52 All right, so you get down there. Yeah, so I get there and, you know, you're meeting all these guys. Yeah. I met a few when I signed up the new guys. We came in with, I think, like, 11 new guys. Wow. So I knew them by face.
Starting point is 00:12:03 I didn't really get to know anybody. Oh, yeah, I just watched Banda Brothers. Have you seen them by face. I didn't really get to know anybody. Oh yeah, I just watched band of brothers. Have you seen that? No. Oh, that's so good. No, and you're meeting like, you know, this some old time is on there that don't like the new kids coming in.
Starting point is 00:12:14 Really, huh? Yeah, they got like, you know, they're going to be in grumbling. Yeah. Yeah. You know, junior scum guy. Yeah, he's smoking, yeah, scabs or whatever. So they're like, all right, here they hand me a piece of to myself, like, I'm gonna drive this garbage truck never drove in a city street
Starting point is 00:12:48 Where we were driving up Randles Island we were going to circle Okay, so now you put cars people so you in downtown. Yeah, and now they're like oh go pick up this partner Never drove a truck in Manhattan let on you you've probably driven a car or been in a car. You've been having it. It's not fun. Oh, it's alarming. It's crazy. And so now you're driving the truck and is a... Jesus Christ. That's scary.
Starting point is 00:13:16 Your first day, you know, your whole thing is the mirrors, you know, worrying about you. It's a truck, you know. It's not a car. Yeah. I got there. Okay. And let's put it that way. All right. And I was all right.
Starting point is 00:13:29 I didn't hit nobody, no hurt, no, everybody. And I picked this dude up. Okay. You know, probably 35 years on a job. Oh, he's been in there, huh? Scrackily looking guy, big, big. Yeah. Come on, kid, you're with me.
Starting point is 00:13:44 I'm like, oh, here we go. Come on, beard. Yeah. Come on kid, you're with me. I'm like, oh, here we go. Oh, come on kid. Yeah. Yeah. So you know what you're falling into that. Right. He's suddenly setting the stone, you know, and he might have been one of the drivers. Oh, yeah. Where you were. I've been willing to. I'm kind of scared. You know, I bet if you pluck a hair out of his beard and test it for nine year old Who knows what'll come back you know, but yeah, Bing But yeah dude and everybody's like looking at you. Wow because it's like you got stuck with this guy. Oh really So that's right away. I'm like oh man. All right, and like rule thumb first thing they teach you is do not stand behind the truck while the back of the truck is cycling. Okay This dude was looking for everything in the truck. We know. So we he had all kinds of shit in his beard. Oh, it was nasty and he didn't even care like it was just like
Starting point is 00:14:41 Back there just fucking catching that hot Flying out he day you look a bit like and looking at me like I'm not in there just for catching that hot. I'm flying out here. Hey, you looking for it like I'm looking at me like I'm not in there with him. Like I'm just throwing it in to get rid of it. Dude, I'm not here to dig through it. Pulling out like spider man figures like, yeah, like crazy. Oh, yeah. And that would go right in line with one of those kids.
Starting point is 00:14:59 Exactly. Exactly. Drives that teacher. Definitely. That was his first job. So he's just back there just collecting samples from the area, huh? Oh, and now when he gets back in the truck, like, what's the inside of the cab?
Starting point is 00:15:14 Is it smell pretty bad in there? Oh, it's a mess. Yeah. Until you get your own truck, like I had, you know, once I got a truck, where you get time on the job, you get a route, like dude, it's cleaning supplies, like we wiped out truck down every day, it was spotless in it. Right.
Starting point is 00:15:29 But when you have guys that just didn't give a crap, you know, they were just, it was filth, man. Oh, you know. And what kind of gear are you wearing? What kind of gear is a New York City garbage man? Sanitation engineer, what type of gear y'all locked in? Just regular, you know, dicky pants with a t-shirt. Jesus. Gwyneth, sweatshirts, you know, not a wetsuit or nothing like that.
Starting point is 00:15:54 No, you know, days you needed it. Oh, I bet. Yeah, it was when it rained, it sucked. Oh. Yeah, I would think you would go full plastic, you know like well gloves and boots were like number one Yeah, that was always like that's where you spent your money. Okay, your pants. It's it is what it is Yeah, you go wash those oh Okay, so now you got so you got this kind of guy rolling with you and how long does that shift go?
Starting point is 00:16:21 I was out there for a while that first day really Really? Because he's digging. He's looking for, you know, treasures. Oh, it is dude. Really? So he's a real hungry. He's a five, six, seven hour, you know, route. We're normally routes take about two hours. Okay. Wow. Really? Yeah. So this guy was just out there and he just likes to collect. Now, as some of these men just really collectors and they kind of hide and masquerading as a sanitation worker. They do that or that some of these guys get the stuff and sell it. Wow. We have businesses, man. Really?
Starting point is 00:16:48 Yeah, they go to like, you know, flea markets and shit. Yeah. Dude, yeah, I have no idea, man. One dude in Staten Island, I hate to even give him the shout out because he's a douchebag. But anyway, yeah, fuck him, but yeah, tell me. Dude, he, it was like Sanford and Son on his roof, leaving the garals some days. Like he take, you know, Dude, it was like Sanford and Son on his roof, leaving the garage some days.
Starting point is 00:17:06 Like he'd take furniture, this, that, everything. Yeah, and you would catch him at the flea market. And but dude, listen, from what was told, he had over a million dollars from what he collected and sold in a bank account. Nah, nah. Wow. So you worked in Manhattan and you worked in Staten Island.
Starting point is 00:17:26 Yeah. He can sit this out here too if it's totally different, totally different setup. So Manhattan, um, like the buildings, it's all buildings, right? You know, house to house, we used to call it. So you go like pale to pale, pale. That's maybe on like 10 blocks, like where I was at. But you get like one building on the corner of just a second and 42nd. I mean, there's 2000 bags out there.
Starting point is 00:17:51 Wow. And they used to call them sausage bags. Okay. So they have compactes in the buildings that literally compact these things and then the guys not the ends and they had, you know, anywhere from three feet to, you know, four or five feet long. Oh, yeah, it's like somebody making a sausage drinks. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:10 And they were not like, and they were not like, really, so you got that long dog. It could somebody have put a body in one, you think? Oh, yeah, you could have put a body in any one of them. I ain't looking. Yeah. But I would do it as I'm not. I could give it damn. Yeah, that
Starting point is 00:18:25 dude. I would tell people all the time the minute you want to do that and just put it in a bag. I ain't looking. Oh, that dude selling famous on exactly. Yeah, have right. That dude's out there. I can sling his shin bones. But it's somebody could put a body in one of those bags, zip it out to the garbage guy. You never know. You know, these days everybody's watching you. You Google something, you get an ad for it.
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Starting point is 00:22:00 Well, I wouldn't do that. Like that's a little much. But if you had access to the compactor, okay, then I think't do that. Like that's a little much. But if you had, you know, access to the compactor, okay, then I think it's different. But if you're gonna shoot do 13 flights down, I mean, somebody's about to hear, you know, there's gotta be some blood, you know, ding, ding, ding, ding, going down.
Starting point is 00:22:15 Yeah, somebody's gonna hear a wristwatch, you know, all the, yeah, yeah. Somebody's watch is gonna connect and something's gonna ping in and, you know, that goes. Right, so if you could get the body down to compactor, there's a chance it could just be thrown out one of the sausage bags. Gone, wow.
Starting point is 00:22:31 Yeah, and we used to, dude, you know, you would have cause, pork, so tight. And there's 30, just saying a small stop, there's 15, 20, 30 bags. Wow. Dude, I'd be like, oh, sad day for this Jaguar, I don't know. I would literally, because I would tell you know, I was 21.
Starting point is 00:22:46 I was stupid. Oh, yeah. I would grab them both sides, slide them right across the hood. The Jaguar. Oh, never call me that. People did. Yeah, whatever calls that. Bruh. I fucking there was nothing better than doing something to the fucking rich boy. You know, well, they just didn't care. Oh, yeah. There no respect for me. So now it's like all right. Oh Because they parked them illegally. They well, no, they're parked legally, but they give you no space
Starting point is 00:23:11 So now those bags, you know, they're heavy and I get it everybody would say well, we don't know we're not garbage man Right. Well, now you're gonna know Yeah, dude, I remember when I used to go over to rich people's houses my buddy Jeff would steal so he had a whole collection of silverware And we were poor poor so it was like everybody was rich, you know what I'm saying? We knew people if you had a fucking front door, bro You had a little bit of money, you know, so like Jeff has silverware from everybody, dude And then if I went over to Rich People's Houses,
Starting point is 00:23:45 a lot of times I would pick my nose when they weren't looking at feed or fucking booger to their dog. Just to fucking stay in the belly. What did you get out of that? What was the thought process of getting out of that? I think for me it was something like, start from the bottom, like you convince these animals
Starting point is 00:24:02 to fucking work for you low-key. You know what I'm saying? It was like like I'm gonna uh they make think they're doing all this and all that but who's fucking feeding these animals. Hey just they just ate your burger. Yeah so yeah no I get it I mean it was like I'm taking things to the lowest it's like I'm just like I don't know it's probably like some Lord of the Flies shit. Anyway. So you got the big sausage bags in the city, right? Yeah. And the city is just, oh, it's hell. It's multiplied crazy.
Starting point is 00:24:33 Like there were times where you knew that like if their compactes were broke, like it was awful, man. Really? Because now they put out, so they could probably fit, I'd say a normal four or five bags of garbage in one of these sausage bags, but now they're compacted broke. So now they got to put regular just bags out. So it just went from 10 to 15 sausage bags to 150 regular garbage bags.
Starting point is 00:24:54 And it's one at a time, you know, just chucking them over the cause and like, and now do you throw them to a buddy and he puts them in or do you that's the goal. In the city, you're pretty much just working together the whole time. Okay. When you go to St. Island, it's like half hour on, half hour off. Okay. So I'll drive for a half hour, you load for a half hour. Vice versa, back and forth till the route's done. Okay.
Starting point is 00:25:17 But him and Hatten, it's like, you know, all hands on deck, because those bags are kind of heavy sometime. It reminds me a little like watching that show. It's like an ocean show, you know what I'm talking about? It's like an ocean show. And they're angry and every year one of them dies and they put it on like TMZ, but they are looking for carpers. They're looking for fish or something, maybe.
Starting point is 00:25:42 I don't know. Yeah, here's a video right here of some sanitation guys. Ready to throw in garbage bags into. Yep. Oh wow, that dude, I was awesome at that. Were you really? Bro, that dude, wow. Uh huh.
Starting point is 00:25:57 That's a private guy. That's buddy healed right there. Yep. That's a private guy. Oh, that's a private guy, someone here boys. Yeah. So how can you tell me that? I did that for a year.
Starting point is 00:26:06 They're truck, all trucks were white. Okay, the white elephant. That's what they called it, and the white elephant always gotten people's way, really pissed them off. Oh, yeah, you guys are the worst, dude. I used to do the whole Cogin real quick. I used to do that, I used to take my gloves off, and they were, you know, I'm in Manhattan, and I'd be like,
Starting point is 00:26:21 you're an asshole. I'm like, you should woke up 10 minutes early. Cause now you're stuck behind me and I ain't moving. Well the craziest thing about a sanitation truck is that not only you stuck, but it smells bad. You're like, hey. And they used to get real close and like I was saying when the shit used to spray out, especially rainy days
Starting point is 00:26:42 after a rainy day or if it was raining, wet these, do that thing and the cause would get covered. I'd be like, oh well. That's on you. Dude, so that must have been kind of fun just throwing those bags. That seemed like something a kid would love to do. I was thrown behind my back just running down a street, you know, in Staten Island because it's a lot lighter in Staten Island. Right, right. So that was in Staten Island, but in the city it's a little bit more, you know, in Staten Island because it's a lot lighter in Staten Island. Right, right.
Starting point is 00:27:05 So that was in Staten Island, but in the city it's a little bit more, you gotta have you do there, you guys are loading this thing up, you're just keeping it moving. Yeah. And in the city, how many bags can go at those big sausage bags can go into the cycle?
Starting point is 00:27:19 And what's the cycle like of the truck? Well, we, I mean, you probably fit like five, six of those bags in at a time, but your average in Manhattan was 10 to 13, 14 tons of garbage in per truck. Per truck, so you start out with nothing in there. Empty, okay. And there's a compactor in the middle, like in the truck, and then it just cycles and compacts it the whole time.
Starting point is 00:27:42 Okay, and the rule of thought, you gotta get the route. So you have to get the whole route on the truck. So you would have to maneuver sometimes squeeze a little more, squeeze a little more. Really. Can you hear it getting tight back in your stuff? Oh yeah. Hey, you could feel it.
Starting point is 00:27:55 It changes the whole drive of the truck from being empty to heavy. Yeah. Yeah, you know, we spoke one time with a female truck driver and she had worked with, and her son, I think, we spoke one time with a female truck driver and she had worked with, and her son, I think, had breast reduction surgery, but she had worked with a cement truck, right? Yeah. And she said, sometimes when the mixer was full, she would drive when she stopped
Starting point is 00:28:19 some more of the brakes, you'd feel the cement come up to like, just the back of it. It was just really interesting. So that kind of made was just really interesting. So that kind of made me think of that. Oh, it changes everything. Just, you know, you think about it, you know, you double everything because tons of 2,000 pounds. So 36,000 and then the truck is probably another 14,
Starting point is 00:28:37 you know, you're looking at, you know, 35, 40,000 pounds. It ain't easy to stop. Wow. Yeah, so you'd have to set the, you know, you can feel that weight ain't easy to stop. Wow. Yeah, so you'd have to set the, yeah, you can feel that weight, huh? That's pretty crazy. Yeah, it's harder to stop, you know, and the trucks would jump to begin with.
Starting point is 00:28:54 I think they, New York out like all the second hand trucks. What? They're like, oh, try this. Like, Mac truck, like, oh, yeah, try this. I'm psych. Dude, it was crazy. Like, for me, it was terrible. I'm tall. I'm six five. So it's like just getting in the truck. I had to get so used to not hit my knees on the dashboard. It was
Starting point is 00:29:13 just not comfortable to sit in. So damn, but they didn't care. Whatever they got at discount on, they took it. Wow. Yeah. Oh, that's everybody now. They'll put you in a damn dude. They'll put you in a fucking baby stroller and make you put six bags on the baby it. Wow, yeah. Oh, that's everybody now. They'll put you in a damn dude. They'll put you in a fucking baby stroller and make you put six bags on the baby, you know. No matter if you could fit. It couldn't call. Whatever they could. Three wheels, not four like crazy.
Starting point is 00:29:35 So how tight does that trash get in there? Can you see it building up? Like it is it build up some heat? Is it that? Yeah, no, it gets, you know, when you dump it, you'll see it told it's like a brick comes out, it'll start falling out here and there, but this steam coming off it.
Starting point is 00:29:49 They're the methane gas, man. Yeah. Yeah. And even if you go out, Staten Island has the biggest landfill in the world, you could see it from space. Oh, wow, that's not landfill. And they have constant pipes that are burning
Starting point is 00:30:05 because of all the methane gas coming out of the ground. That's fucking beautiful man. God, it's almost like, yeah, like grease or something when they do the Olympics or whatever they like the torches. Yeah. Oh wow, that is amazing, huh? Yep.
Starting point is 00:30:20 They stopped dumping it now. But that's back in the... They should have kept dumping. Yeah, they gave up. But I had sucks, you know, because I do know a lot of people that passed away in standout from cancer, but like that, the cancer rate on standout is awful.
Starting point is 00:30:34 Is it really? That's why I had to get the hell out of it. Wow. Yeah, I wanna get into some of that. So yeah, my friend Aaron, actually, he's part of a new company called Vest Bean, and what they do do this is pretty interesting they
Starting point is 00:30:47 Take the methane gas at landfills and they burn it and it but they convert it immediately into electricity So usable, you know, yeah, that works that so now you have electricity that's right there available So say if they had like trash trucks or something and that they were Electric electric then they could charge them up immediately or they could use the energy for a little bit. They were using it to mine Bitcoin when Bitcoin was popular, but now they're finding other places to use the energy, but it's just kind of fascinating something that's going on. I can't believe that that log is hot, huh? Now what do they call them?
Starting point is 00:31:22 Bricks, logs, because that's almost like a damn diamond of trash, you know? Yeah, it's, you know, listen, when you dump, you just dump, you're not staring at it. You just go out and get out of there, you know? Cause we used to dump now, man, hand, we started dumping on the side of the termpikin jersey. And that got burns it. But he's got million dollar, like filter,
Starting point is 00:31:42 so he's able to, you know, the smoke coming out to clean. Really? Come on. Dude's a crazy money. Dude, you have no idea. He was getting, they were charging 50 something dollars per ton to the city.
Starting point is 00:31:56 Plus he signed like an 80 million dollar contract with the city to take all the garbage. Cause you know, who gotta get paid off to have the trucks now on the turnpike, you know, cause they don get paid off to have the trucks now on the turnpike, you know, because they don't want that. And then he's selling the ash. Uh-uh.
Starting point is 00:32:11 Yeah, dude, just money over money. There's so much money in garbage, dude, you have no idea. Really? It's a billion dollar business. Damn. And the mafia used to be involved in it, right? That's what they were in it. Well, when you brought up bodies,
Starting point is 00:32:22 like that's the one thing on stand out. And those are the myths, the tales. They would put them in the fridge. They would put them in the fridge. God rest their soul used to work out there. He was a tractor operator. And he said that cause used to come in, pimped out Lincoln's, and they would just all turn around.
Starting point is 00:32:36 And the call used to go up to the top of the hill. Never see it again. Wow. Call it just disappear. Person disappear. They pull out. See you later, fellas. That was it. It's the devil's ocean, maybe the landfill. Yeah. There's a lot of stories out there. I wonder, I
Starting point is 00:32:54 wish God would just tell us how many bodies are in that land fill. Sometimes I pray sometimes that I wake up with the number in my head. Because you know there are. Definitely. Did you ever feel like, do you ever get a weird feeling or premonition like you're driving the truck home? Like could there have been a body in there and you have no idea at some point whenever that you're dumping it, you would have seen something.
Starting point is 00:33:18 Listen, you definitely think you could get a feeling, you know, if somebody comes out and says something, you're like, oh, maybe this dude just whacked somebody, you know, his wife ain't healthy right now. Like, she's probably in this bag. Right. Like, I'll throw it in. Oh, yeah. But no, I never, I had one of these two guys came out of the house when they hysterical crying.
Starting point is 00:33:41 Oh, yeah. I'm like, what the fuck happened, you know, what now? And we were in that kind of neighborhood instead of on and I'm like, all right, what's up? Our dog died. I'm like, oh my God. Oh my God. Yeah, bring it to get cremated with the why you telling me? I try to cut corners, killing gays, trying to cut corners. Could we throw it in the truck? I'm like, oh, fuck it. I'm a dog owner at the time. I'm a dog lover. Next to you know, on the bed, dude, a yellow lab. This thing had to be a hundred pounds. Oh, and they both grabbed two like, crying.
Starting point is 00:34:13 No, it was on the bed. They got rid of the bed. The toys, the shit was still lined up like he was just playing and then just dead. Like, and they're like, okay, and just launch them into the back of the truck. I'm like, I told my partner, I'm like, dude, you got it. I can't cycle that up, man.
Starting point is 00:34:30 Yeah. Like, oh, fuck. So it's like, you would get the feeling if somebody was like, oh, yeah, can I throw this bag in? Like, where's your wife? Yeah. I heard you all fighting last week about garbage, and, you know, I heard y'all fighting last week about garbage, you know, and so what then you tell a guy You press the button and you press it. Yeah, I just you know in that case. I was like dude
Starting point is 00:34:50 I told my partner and he was just the heating of he's like yeah, all right. Yeah, I sell it's collar in an hour Med usable put that on Etsy on Facebook marketplace make $13 They'll sell anything on that. Oh, yeah, dude. You could fuck us sell your cousin on that bitch What you know I'm saying if he can't read if he's still teachable, you know, you'll fuck us somebody buy that bitch in an hour You go on that by yaks wife on that You go on that fine yaks wife on that business way you could buy used barrettes on that Yeah, I'm probably you know rats. Yeah, I'm probably the bro my my old and age back She's saving and barrettes boy back in a day. You see a girl with a couple barretten or I think what oh You know what girls used to wear when I was like in school. They were headbands, remember that?
Starting point is 00:35:41 No, my sisters were big in the scrunchies. Oh, yeah They were all over the goddamn place tangled up up with hair, all kinds of nasty. I grew up with three sisters, so. Oh, really? Yeah, man. I was the only boy. Damn. Three sisters, you know, I've been through it.
Starting point is 00:35:59 Wow, yeah. Damn. And did you, um, did any of them were they okay when you got into the sanitation game? What they say, did it, when he, you know, on my sister, April was pissed. Really? Cause she filled out the shit and she did it in.
Starting point is 00:36:13 Uh-uh. And she didn't get picked to take the test. She was pissed. Still to this day, she reminds me. I got you that job. Wow. So I took that test. Actually, it was hard as hell.
Starting point is 00:36:23 You didn't take it for me. She went and took it and didn't pass. No, no, no. She I took that test. I actually was hot as hell. You didn't take it for me. She went and took it and didn't pass. No, no, no. She didn't get called. Remember I said, she didn't get the lottery. 15, 20,000 people took it. She didn't get picked to take it. It's crazy that even at the like, that there's a lottery to like, there's like lotteries at every end of the spectrum of life, man. So what time, what season of the year is the worst time of the year for trash, man? Definitely the winters. The winters were awful. The summers were hot, but once you've got used to that smell, even nowadays, I'll never
Starting point is 00:36:59 be able to smell how awful it is because you're just used to it. I guess it's like second nature. The maggot smell and just all that nastiness, you're just used to it. Yeah. I guess like second nature. Yeah. You know, the maggot smell and just all that nastiness, it's just part of it. The winters were grueling, man. Really? And that's because of the cold, huh? Just the cold, the ice, you know,
Starting point is 00:37:14 if it snowed, you're stepping over all that shit, you still got to pick the garbage up. Now you work in 12-hour days with, you know, if it snowed, you're constantly driving around the truck, you know, it's it's growing and Would you lot of cleats and stuff? What would you wear for shoe wear and just boots? Wow. Yeah So you had you know you had rain boots you had you know junk boots just for because I always wore like a Like a hiking boot because I can move faster. Yeah, you know when you're wearing like heavy boots like they always said don't wear steel toes
Starting point is 00:37:44 Because you know God forbid something hitch on the foot, it'll snap your toes off. So I don't know the steel would actually snap your toes off. Yeah. So that's the downside of wearing a steel toe boots. If you're in an industry like that, yeah, because there are awesome cans. I mean, I don't think back in the day, they used to be metal cans. They used to pick up ash in New York City. So everybody would burn that garbage in the buildings and they would have these like 150 pound steel garbage cans and I had lifted a few of them in my time They know joke man. Wow loaded with ash. So they that's what they used to just dump so the buildings would just burn their garbage All the housing buildings they used to just get rid of the garbage that way. There was no bags on the street.
Starting point is 00:38:25 So they had an incinerator in there that would burn it up. Every building in New York had an incinerator. Wow. Yep. And when did that change code, do you know? One of these people came up with something that it was killing everybody. So, you know, oh, probably some monopoly, some bullshit. Want to trump a Chris Christie's fat buddies, I'm sure.
Starting point is 00:38:44 Yeah, they were probably- Want to take, can you look that up when that changed? probably some monopoly, some bullshit. Wanna Trump or Chris Christie's fat buddies, I'm sure. Yeah, they were probably- They were probably- They were probably- They were probably, you know, killing the polar bears or something, you know. They were, they were melting somewhere in the- Yeah, they got a fucking, some grainy video of a,
Starting point is 00:38:57 like a rare fox doing two lines of fucking city-ass, you know, but they're like, we can't fucking do it. No, what? With a we can't fucking do it. No more with a sign. Yeah. Stop burning co burning your garbage. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. See like me. Yeah. How did that fox even learn to write, brother? Nobody asked any questions on his nose shit anymore. Here it is in 1989, Mayor Edcock or coach coach. Wait, you know who else talked about it, Koch? I think was Bobby Kennedy Jr. when he was on Talk About it, Koch. Mayor Ed Koch signed a bill that required incinerators in New York City to shut down within
Starting point is 00:39:33 four years. And lo and behold, all incinerators had stopped operations by the end of 1993. And that was the end of that no more trash burning. Huh. Does it say why? Why, anything else? Of the pollution. Of the pollution.
Starting point is 00:39:48 Oh, the air pollution. Yeah, they were just burning. Right. Like that was if you were burning it in your fireplace. Yeah. They didn't have like I was telling you in Jersey, this guy has a multi-million dollar filter and no more missions, blah, blah, blah.
Starting point is 00:40:00 They didn't have that back then. Oh, I see. He said that every building was burning. But weren't the trash men just picking it up and taking it somewhere to burn it? No, then it was just ash. So they would just get rid of it. I don't know what they did with it back then. But I mean, after the trash men, after they shut down the incinerators, the trash men just took it. Oh, they just put it in a landfill. Yeah. So they weren't burning it. No. So then that's when there's a few landfills. They started. There was one in Brooklyn. There's, I think they were like all over New York,
Starting point is 00:40:27 but Staten Island, oh yeah, we're just gonna do this for a few years and then it turns into the biggest landfill, like known to man. Wow. And we have, what do you say to people who like, because a lot of landfills have been filled over with dirt and people buy houses on them, right? What do you say to the people who, you know,
Starting point is 00:40:42 you buy a house and in four years later, you know, everything, you know, everything he tastes like fucking fig newtons and fucking baby gravy or something. And your son's got fucking facial hair at four, you know? Yeah, that's probably what's going on. They actually stand out and they're making it to a park. Uh-uh.
Starting point is 00:41:02 Yeah. And I mean, dude, yeah, I've seen animals out there. Some wicked shit. I mean, dude, there's this go for whatever the fuck it was. Dude, it looked like a full blown pickle. That's how big this fucking thing was. I swear I saw a bear out there, everybody told me I was crazy.
Starting point is 00:41:20 But, because there was a ton of deer, like the deer swim from Jersey, they were coming in. Why are they headed over there No, it's just like anywhere else they're building and they're pushing them out of their home So now they see this big forest across the end of rivers You know the whatever the hell it is on it. It's not a river But there's a short little spur from Jersey to Staten Island in one location And they just swim over and they got a whole shit and no way could shoot them. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:41:45 You can't shoot that close to the city, huh? You just can't hunt on standout. What is, is there like a habitat on the landfills? Is there like anna male? It's out there living. Is there, what is that like? Is it almost seems like, because it's almost it's whole own like, like,
Starting point is 00:42:01 narnia, like a fucking dirt, like a fucking... Oh, definitely, you see... Trash, Narnia. You see mutant stuff out there. Really? Yeah. You know, rats look like cats. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:13 Like I said, there was like a gofida that looked like a pit bull. You know, and you got deer running through that place, nuts. Like, big boys, and nobody can hunt them. Oh, you can't hunt them. No. Hmm. Dude, dear people are crazy. I'm, dear people, no. I'm surprised nobody jumps a fence and gets out there, you know.
Starting point is 00:42:34 They try. Really? Yeah. They've tried, but, you know, they, and they have little security here and there. Guy killed a big buck once and he got, he lost, he actually got fired. Oh, and it was a mechanic, yeah, it was a mechanic for the city and got fired. He was out there hunting on the landfill
Starting point is 00:42:48 Yeah, he killed it and then everybody saw it because you can't hunt it So you're seeing this this buck walked around like it was his area. Oh, he would be out in the middle of the day Just walking the streets, you know, he didn't give a shit. He was gangster But but now they also put a guy, you know, on the hill to like keep the population down. Oh, wait. So there's a, um, there's a person that works on the landfill. Yeah, that well, they pay a guy who sleeps in a tent on the landfill that, you know, takes care of the de-population. Yeah. Yeah. You know, snips, tucks, cuts, you know, all kinds of things. He uh, they darted you read a neutral, uh, what's it called? Nutri-lases? No. Well, it's
Starting point is 00:43:34 vasectomy. Vasectomy. And you know, all kinds of, uh, so they're doing animal vasectomy out there on the landfill. Anything to keep the population down. That's beautiful, man. He sits out there in the cold. And what does he do? He's he dart them and they fall asleep. Yep. Then he slips over. Snips, tucks. Damn. Oh, it's a wrap. God. Yep. Put some get through sometimes. That fucking nut grants. He just rolls up on them. Oh, God. Fuck it on real. Man, dude, sniper and deer out in the middle of the land shit. But that's what they do. God. Cause like you said, they would just run wild.
Starting point is 00:44:09 That fucking sperm dexter, that dude's out there fucking. Clip and puff. Probably selling it too. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh deer seeming to do it, I'll fucking get a rid of a quarter of it, 40 feet of my home here. Oh, it's in a sea. Anybody will buy that shit.
Starting point is 00:44:25 Oh, damn. Wow, bro, that's incredible. I didn't know that that was a job. Somebody lives in a tent on a landfill. Yep. And youth and I are sedates and then the sector means. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:44:36 Deer. They have to keep the population down. That's what they do. Bears are moving across New York. It says right here, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is urging residents to secure food sources that might attract bears as bear sightings increased due to the animal search
Starting point is 00:44:55 for high calorie meals after winter hibernation. Wow. Yeah, people, I just went to dinner with a couple friends of us, me and my wife, and they're, and they're, she's going to kill me. I'm saying this, but and the wife's like, wait, they, like, they don't wait for off peak hours and come over the bridge. I'm like, you, you can't be serious to think, dear,
Starting point is 00:45:15 a running over a bridge. Like to get that. Like, no, you know, they see the forest. They, they're getting kicked out of there land, and see it, so they swim over there. Yeah, but we had a guy, this guy was a medium sized animal detective, he was on, and he said that, yeah, a lot of times, like animals would just get into your house,
Starting point is 00:45:40 because they don't know it's your house, they just, their nature is getting destroyed, and so then they just go to like whatever seems like a place that's safe, you know? So sometimes it's people's attic, you know, because a lot of people is finding raccoons and they add it in a lot of urban areas. But what else, dude?
Starting point is 00:45:59 Okay, so there's methane coming off of that trash block already when the compresses compress it that much? Yeah, there's definitely a light smoke coming off of it. If you threw a match and it would it be flammable maybe? I listened, I wasn't trying to, you know, to me, like I said, we get done two hours, I could get done, be done back at the garage hanging out, you know, shower, done if I get covered with ain't junk and be done. I'm not paying attention to what comes out of the truck at that point.
Starting point is 00:46:24 Is there, um, how big is that block that comes out of the truck? Like show me what you're hand. Like how big is that block? You know what out of the garbage truck? Yeah, the one that gets compressed after it's full and it compresses it up. Full garbage truck. A full garbage truck.
Starting point is 00:46:38 Oh, it's, you know, like I said, you know, 10 tons, I want to say the truck was 14 feet by maybe eight, nine feet tall by the width of a garbage truck, 12. The things the size is room. The block of garbage. Yeah, that's how big the garbage is. You know, when I went to stand out, I was doing six tons and that's like a totally different situation.
Starting point is 00:47:02 That's like more or just fluff out. But when you're in Manhattan, you're packing and packing and packing and getting that route. Yeah. That just like, brrr, you know. Does it just come out as like a big, do you get to see the brick at the end? Yeah, no, it's not like a brick where like it's gonna come out as an actual brick and they pick it up
Starting point is 00:47:18 and just like build a house with it. Okay. You know what I'm saying? It's like, it's just falling apart like as it's coming out. Okay. Um, yeah. And then now they ship, they ship out the garbage from New York. They ship it to like Pennsylvania.
Starting point is 00:47:33 They use it for landfill. Okay. Like you had said, like they filled the swamps and stuff. And then they build on it 10 years later. Wow. And then the sun has a beard at three. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and your son's a fucking mall Santa
Starting point is 00:47:46 in five years old. Exactly. You got to work. But they don't care. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no to say differently because some people get offended, but retidation, all kind of stuff like that, like brain problems for children is because our water and food supplies are contaminated, you know? Yeah, I wouldn't doubt it. It makes sense.
Starting point is 00:48:15 But they're not gonna, you know how they are. They're not gonna test it if somebody's making money off of it. No, fuck no, not these days. They're making money off of all those unfortunate cases. Yeah, you know, so it's like Schumer right there and make them throw that off. Yeah, you know, is there joy happening around the holidays though? Is that an exciting time to be out and about like,
Starting point is 00:48:36 because you get to at least be in this, like there's a romantic cessation of people being in New York City around the holidays, right? And I know you guys guys your route runs ran early there. What time do you route run? Yeah, we started at 6 a.m. Okay, so you started at 6 a.m. So, but was it still fun to be in the holidays around that time? Even though it was so colder, it's just the worst time because it's winter.
Starting point is 00:48:56 Yeah, no, it was still good times, you know, just a lot more people on the street, even in those early days, you know, everybody's now coming in that, you know, people want wanna see New York City. Yeah. I don't know why, but to me, it's just a shit hole, but that's New York for you. Oh yeah, people will come and stare at a shit hole, I mean shit, they got porn sites, it's based on it.
Starting point is 00:49:21 How long would it take you those routes in the city? How long does it take? How long does a trash route in the city take a garbage man? It all dependent on the day, the route. You know, your average was two and a half three hours. Oh, well. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:33 But by the time you got out there, you know, you started six, by the time you get to the route, cause now we were on the west side, we picked up on the east side. So you get out there like six.30, quarter to seven, start the route. Right. Now you gotta drive to Jersey to dumping.
Starting point is 00:49:48 Oh yeah. So by the time you get back to the garage, you're running hustling to be able to sit down, eat lunch for an hour and a half and then you go home. Okay. It's not worth it. Now that I look at it, I killed my body for no reason. So you get there at six, you probably leave for work around five or something?
Starting point is 00:50:07 Yeah, I was getting up five o'clock. Okay, get up at five out the door by five, 20. Yeah, you're out of rush. Because Staten Island was a nightmare trying to get off of it. You know, there's only the one bridge to get, you know, the Varuzano through Brooklyn to get into Manhattan. Okay. The traffic was awful.
Starting point is 00:50:22 So if you weren't at, like, I used to meet a few guys at five o'clock at the bridge Okay, if you weren't there five you weren't getting there by six maybe I'll take a ferry or drive drive Okay, but okay, so you get that done so you can get it done in a couple of hours, right? You still get paid you could pay for it eight out. Yeah, you get paid the eight out So there was some like cool value and getting it done quick Yeah, well you guys race and ever was it fun exactly? We you know, it was always a competition. Oh, that's cool. It's done faster But like I said, I look back now, you know, if not having back surgery two shoulder surgeries and knee surgery You know really yeah, you look at you just beat yourself up and for what end is the city pay for those surgeries
Starting point is 00:50:59 Yeah, I was on you know on their time So I did both shoulders and my knee On the job. And then a year after I retired, I just had back surgery two years in June. It was two years. Wow, would you have dis replacement? No, actually, they went in, I had, uh, discectomy. Disectomy, L5S1?
Starting point is 00:51:16 No, I don't even know. Wow. Elemental P, I call it, because it's just... I get a pull out of your back. I have five in them and they cut out three, so my disc was still okay, so they kept them. Dude, you'll be a midget wrestler my next year, man. Soon enough, you'll be coming down.
Starting point is 00:51:32 I'm getting shorter and shorter as I go. Oh, you'll be living at half mass, dude, like somebody fucking died in service. They're bringing you down. Soon enough. Cold turkey, it may be great on sandwiches, but there's a better way to break your bad habits. We're not talking about some weird mind voodoo or some who-do, some say-on-series that
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Starting point is 00:54:11 Visit betterhelp.com slash Theo. Today to get 10% off your first month, that's betterhelp.com slash THEO. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Wow, man. So there's a lot of injuries by Better Health. Wow, man. So there's a lot of injuries on the job. Yeah, and like I said, we ran around like idiots. Like I say to guys now, old them,
Starting point is 00:54:30 I still talk to guys on the job. I'm like, don't stop running around. Don't do this stuff. Like what do you mean running around when you say that? What? Like, so at one point, I want to say five, six years on, they cut the steps off the trucks. So it was, it was all right.
Starting point is 00:54:45 You used to jump on the back of the truck, hang on. I'm sure you see pictures of guys whipping. I mean, I had guys that would do 50 miles an hour, and I'm on the back of the truck hanging off with the old life. Oh, that's awesome. Bumps and, you know, yeah, yeah. But then y'all were doing drugs back there?
Starting point is 00:54:58 Ooh, I wasn't doing drugs. I never did that stuff, but there was. Oh, you okay. You mean hitting bumps in the truck? Oh, not. Yeah, my bad man. And I'm not trying to accuse you of doing anything. No, but listen, I'll get to that. But yeah, so you were, you know, then they cut the steps off the truck. Why to make it harder for you? Well, pretty much. But the union was saying, like, you know, we all thought it was because we were getting done too fast. Okay, you know, and listen, it's reality.
Starting point is 00:55:27 Like, if we're getting done in two, three hours, they're saying, what are you doing the rest of the day? Which is totally understood. Being in the union, get all you know, exactly union is for us. You know, and we would just get, be fine, we're just going back and hanging out, eating lunch. Some guys would hang around, play cards,
Starting point is 00:55:44 some others would, you know would do what they were doing, enjoying their lives. But yeah, it just wasn't 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 miles like Marathon's on weekends. Wow.
Starting point is 00:55:58 Dude, my buddy, Eric, we were running. Like I did probably three, four miles, easy every day running. So you're cruising in, pull this mic down, just a little lower it. Yeah, I did probably three, four miles, easy every day running. So you're cruising in, 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.
Starting point is 00:56:13 So we was pretty athletic. At that time, yeah. When you had the truck, when the trucks had the three steps on it, it was pretty athletic. No, when they had, when they took the steps off, you know, we started getting a little more excited. Yeah, then we were running along, you know, oh, then you got a lot of yeah, then we were running along
Starting point is 00:56:26 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, Mike you know for what you know a Hogi and then add on some doughnuts. Oh, yeah coffee Get your little fucking cut of cheesecake. Oh, exactly. Coffee. Could you look fucking cut a cheesecake, huh? Exactly. Here with me, sewer, I'm gonna fucking holidays on. Yeah. In memory of fucking big Carlos or whatever.
Starting point is 00:56:51 Yeah, I feel that, man. Damn. Well, that's like New Orleans. I think New Jersey and New Orleans have always been very similar. And I think some of like, I bet probably stand on some of that accent. You also hear New Orleans. If people like to fucking have a meal. It's important. You know, people have a beer at lunch a lot of times.
Starting point is 00:57:11 And 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.
Starting point is 00:57:28 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 that they, you know, on those hot days or the cold days, they didn't mind it. They stayed out there. And you have to wear a shirt the whole time or what is the, you have people doing shirtless or not? Yeah, there was some guys that was some questionable stuff?
Starting point is 00:57:45 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 to see the elder drive, the trucks. Wait, you didn't need to, you didn't need a commercial driver's license to drive a sanitation.
Starting point is 00:58:01 Until, up until 96. So those guys were partying. I'm probably. So those guys were partying. I'm broke. Those guys were partying. I heard some stories. So you could drive a Ford escort and then drive a garbage truck. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:58:13 They're guys like a minicoupa. They'll come in in a minicoupa and then jump in the garbage truck. I could do this. A maximum coupe. Yeah. That's what I did. So yeah, then they went to the federal license. So now it means everybody's got to get drug tested
Starting point is 00:58:27 You know random drug tests everything 96 that started yeah, and the party in Here and now some guys this didn't care so they still went for it Which some guys just drink on the job was any party on the job? Oh I had guys, you know, I want them best guys, you know, got arrested so like literally out to gate six a.m. Hey kids stop over here. Run into the store, come out to toe boys. Oh, yeah, you know, then 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
Starting point is 00:59:05 time it was a half hour up, there was a different deli. Oh, so they got a cheek follow Mortadellan to be his own running. Praise God, brother praise God. Yeah. Now guys enjoyed themselves. Yeah, that sounds nice. That sounds like it should be, you know, but it started fucking everything in America's a penny pension fucking fiasco now nobody can have a fucking cheek full of strong cheese and two fucking uh bush lights you know to get through the work day. Uh huh. You know there was one dude that do he was purple at one point. Well what happened to him? He was just drinking.
Starting point is 00:59:37 Oh drinking that much. Dude his skin was it was awful. Some people I don't even know if he's alive anymore. He's not. I'm telling you. It's a question. I ain't alive dude even know if he's alive anymore. He's not I'll tell you. I guess it's quite a lot. I do look after Purple it just yeah, it's gonna be on the Mac It's a fucking wrap after that right right in the ground. Oh
Starting point is 00:59:54 Man, that's and what about was a lot of uppers because it seems like people would be on Adderall people will be on a cane, you know, people would be party, you know, like was anybody that could do that kind of lifestyle? Oh, there were guys that party like that a cane, you know, people will be party, 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 standout. So let's talk about this day, like the other one, not as bad. This guy said, like band down on 70s, glasses right out of hippie central. Yeah. Oh, you'll win me. I'm like, all right, cool.
Starting point is 01:00:26 Now I'm in stand-on first day. I'm like, what the hell's going on here? Once again, they don't know why I'm 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 around. I don't know.
Starting point is 01:00:40 I live in stand-on, still in no streets. Wow. You know, so I'm just driving around. Yeah. And I'm like, what's that smell? Dude, hanging on the back, I live in standout, still didn't know streets. Wow. You know, so I'm just driving around. Yeah. And I'm like, what's that smell? Dude's hanging on the back, I live in his dream, just token away. Getting high, huh?
Starting point is 01:00:51 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 was a daily thing. Pull up a picture of Stevie Starlight if you can. See if this is, this is see if this guy looks anything like
Starting point is 01:01:05 this gentleman or not. But some guys just couldn't, couldn't stop man. Look like this guy a little bit. Yeah. No, not that crazy, you know, yeah. Steve is like like bandana crosses head. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I know what you're talking about.
Starting point is 01:01:24 Cool. Like circle glasses. Oh, yeah, yeah, you know, I know what you're talking about. Cool. Like circle glasses. Yeah, yeah. Some guy who's fucking He listens to spring steam, but he don't admit it, huh? Yeah, probably in the closet. Yeah, yeah, it's spring steam. Definitely not telling people. Yeah, you know, um Yeah, once you get into Staten Island, what things changing because it's more like family housing and stuff Exactly, and what is that like does it's more like family housing and stuff. Exactly. And what is that like? Does it almost feel like a lot easier? Does it not feel like the front lines of trash?
Starting point is 01:01:49 Because I feel like in the city, you're on the fucking front lines. You're right there. It's coming out of the shoot. You're fucking, you know, you got guys catching shit in their beard and shit. But out in the suburbs, it feels like it would be a little bit easier.
Starting point is 01:02:03 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 care. Yeah, you never saw them. You know, never saw people, it's not like, hey, I'm from 4F. Yeah. You know, you're an idiot. Like, you know, they don't care. Oh, in a city you could just drive in this
Starting point is 01:02:26 Yeah, I would anyway. Yeah, there's cabs beeping like this So you never you know, you're not waking anybody up everybody's used to it right and he comes to San 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 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.
Starting point is 01:02:53 Really? So like, what do you mean richer areas? No. Just owned areas by certain types of people in New York. So maybe upper echelon types or whatever? You think I'm certain religion people. Okay. They have there. So like the Orthodox Jews don't want you in their neighborhood between 12 to 5. Bingo. Wow.
Starting point is 01:03:13 And there was some nasty move. Is it pretty nasty over there in their neighborhood? Well, they just listen, it's not against them because I have actually been in some of those houses. Yeah. Like because there are people in those areas that are very nice. But then, you know, Passover comes
Starting point is 01:03:28 and they throw everything out. They're like five, six year old throne matches. Like, she lightens you don't 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
Starting point is 01:03:43 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. Oh, they just get rid of everything. They throw everything out couches beds clothes Everything goes in the garbage. Why is this part of the tradition a part of their religion. Wow star fresh It's 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
Starting point is 01:04:10 and a, and a fire truck fireman would have like three blocks because the kids were running around like and I had guys do it plenty of times. They lights on 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,
Starting point is 01:04:27 just a, are they training for like battle or something? No, it's just the kids. Oh, kids screwing around. Animals. Oh yeah. Oh, so I blocked a bus one day. And again, that's what I'm saying. Like then that's when they get into,
Starting point is 01:04:41 we don't want them on the truck, the streets early this time by the block. And these little kids get off the buses because now I't want them on the truck, the streets early, this time by the block, and these little kids get off the buses because now I held them up on the block. They're blowing the horn, you know, they have their own police, their own people, and they tell you, you gotta move the truck. I'm like, dude, I'm almost done with the block.
Starting point is 01:04:54 I'm not moving the truck. Yeah. The little kid gets off and he's looking at me, the finger. Wow. He's like five. I'm like, what are they, what goes on here? What goes on here? I don't know.
Starting point is 01:05:05 I got a bunch of your friends on 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 at a, I said, I didn't, I was in a halfway house with a orthodox dude one time. And he brought his own fucking grill. He was dressed like biggie smalls at a Masonic temple.
Starting point is 01:05:24 And he was sweating. And if you said pussy around him, he'd fucking he couldn't need his eyes. He'd open his mouth and fucking put his tongue out. He got his guy was at purve. And 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, fucking put it at 4-8, you know, when I lost as he can. It was just a magnifying glass.
Starting point is 01:05:52 Yeah, the ship was fucking hungry. A cloud comes, he's like, damn it, everyone's 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, through hell with the middle, bro. This motherfucker. There was some gear.
Starting point is 01:06:09 Oh, this guy had been raising some fucking mixed dogs and his coat, but this guy, he smelled horrible. 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 the same. It's garbage, right? Once you throw it in there, it all blended in. And like you said, during the summers, it was all the same. It was all the same. It's garbage, man. Once you throw it in there, it all blended in.
Starting point is 01:06:25 And like you said during the summers, 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. Why? You don't smell nothing anymore. You used to it, huh? So used to it.
Starting point is 01:06:40 Cat urine was the worst of me. Oh, it was awful. Because 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 get in and me and my partner. And I know, like bags stay far away from me. You know, I'm big enough guy, long enough arms, I kept that shit away.
Starting point is 01:06:57 And never let the bags touch my legs. And I would look at my partner, I'm like, you got hit. And he's like, what do you mean? I said, you don't smell that. Because now you get in and it's even cold out. You close the doors, you put their heat on and you smell that, turn cat piss up, you know. Oh yeah.
Starting point is 01:07:13 Oh yeah. Disgusting. Still worth smell out there. Yeah, I remember we used to get a bowl of cat piss and we would do a hair dryer over it. Just a fucking piss my sister off, do it under the door by her room. Fuck her, dude.
Starting point is 01:07:28 Awful. Fuck her. Wow, so there's no time a year really when the trash smells worse, huh? Well, the sum is a bit. Just the summers get overall. But yeah, it's, you know, there was some point, you know, you would open up a lid
Starting point is 01:07:44 and if it was sitting there with maggots and stuff You you get a kick Mm-hmm, and that's another smell that was pretty brutal, but other than that it's you got used to it Was there a burrow of New York where the trash smelled the worst you think? No, okay all the same It's that own there was a movie theater not far from the dump before they closed it It was awful to 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 burrows.
Starting point is 01:08:20 Yeah, you know trash island you know all. But you just didn't smell it. 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 when I was growing up we would burn a trash in the ditch. That was the big thing in our area. You know you'd bring everything out, you'd burn it in a ditch. The kids we would like get wet, like get hose each other down and then run through
Starting point is 01:08:45 to smoke till you look all black, you know, you'd be out there like, you know. That's different. It would be like, yeah, you know, you would just, it wasn't like doing black face. And I was just like burning trash. And but you definitely looked a little smokey but again, you know, it was, it was just something to do,
Starting point is 01:09:03 you know. Yeah. What were we talking about? Oh, oh, fuck on it. When I went out to stand out. Oh yeah, and what a difference is. Yeah, it's just, like I said, you deal with a different person now. Now, because you can't deal with the kids.
Starting point is 01:09:17 Yeah, well, you're dealing with people who own the garbage. Right. Like it's their house, house to house to house. I tell people all the time, I knew things about you from your garbage that you do not think I know. Really? And then 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.
Starting point is 01:09:36 Oh, yeah. My wife will be disgusted by that, but you knew it. You know it. In the bags ripped, your life is in front of me. And I ain't picking through it. Right. But I was, yeah's rip, your life is in front of me. And I ain't picking through it. Right. But I was, yeah, and it's crazy.
Starting point is 01:09:48 I'll quick you to see things so fast. Dude, I did this game one day, and I went in New York City right down to, I went in the city. Like, I think I was on a low-reside. And I did this game with people. I said, I'm gonna open a bag of trash. You smell it.
Starting point is 01:10:03 You take a whiff out of it, right? Just a random bag random bag okay and if you can guess three items that are in it I'll 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 together whatever I was picking these bitches up from the fucking corner. So you didn't even know if they would be right. Bro, I didn't know what I was doing. So we crack on back and forth. People are taking hits off of it, dude, over there off of an alphabet city, bro. Ooh, that was nasty stuff down there. Yeah, we made a video of it online,
Starting point is 01:10:40 but anyway, that was something we did with trash in the city. What about the, was there any ladies that tried to flirt with you? That ever happened on the route once you got into the house? Is like any fucking bin bagues or any fucking... They didn't notice you. Trying to run that can, climb out on your bruh. Well, that's why I wore the shirt. My butt, this shirt's 25 years old.
Starting point is 01:11:01 Really? I was gonna give it to you. But it says, put out your can, here comes the garbage. I used to sport this shirt all the time. It is a sexy lady, huh? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, but her ass hanging in the wind. I like that. But no, listen, you didn't you didn't see people. Yeah. Unless you were, you know, waking people up and, you know, in their way. Other than that, you were not like it's crazy because nobody even knew, they never acknowledged you. Wow. New York hated you because you were loud.
Starting point is 01:11:30 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. Yeah. When they see you making six figures, picking garbage up.
Starting point is 01:11:47 Oh, well, my guy, this, and now all of a sudden they know you're around. Wow, once the money comes on, huh? But probably to that, they could kill us. That's the 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. Now they will jump on his tracks. Now they all fucking want to write articles about him, say he's racist that is using his name, you know?
Starting point is 01:12:09 Exactly. So you guys pulling six figures a year with the job. Yeah. Right. Starting first year, it gains subtraction. No, yeah. My first year, I think if I had to guess 27 grand. What?
Starting point is 01:12:21 But just with the overtime with the winter, with the snow and all that stuff with, you know, I think my first jet made like almost 60. Wow. Okay. So it almost double, right, because you have to be there. You know, New York doesn't stop. So it's your on call all day, you know, 12 hours shifts. I've worked up to 31 day straight, 12 hours shifts.
Starting point is 01:12:40 You know, 31, you know, 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. Pick and garbage up. But he would do 12 hour days every day, over time, he would eat up, you know, kind of hated his family.
Starting point is 01:12:59 So, you know, and you get it. When you meet these families, you're like, yeah, this is why this guy works a little time. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, you know, and you get it when you meet these families you're like, yeah, this is why this guy works a little time. Yeah, wow Yeah, this says got bottom 20% 30 6.3 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 over time right so that's's not having your overtime. So that's where you can get up to 100. You can get up to six figures.
Starting point is 01:13:27 Wow. You can almost double that. Easy. Wow. Guys were 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.
Starting point is 01:13:38 Yeah. I used to, you know, love throwing beers to the guys. And it turned out like then I come to stand out and those guys were still on the job. I was like, dude, I remember you know what? 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.
Starting point is 01:13:53 So they kind of were like, yeah, you had a, we had like a porch out front. And you know, we dropped the beers down to the guys. But like I was saying, they didn't wear uniforms back then. We had like a wife beat her on and a pair of shorts? Oh, yeah. Just gagging through the streets.
Starting point is 01:14:08 I do. Did it wear a gif? Yeah, dude's wearing a fucking snorkel and a fucking exactly. Some questionable stuff back then. Dude wearing a snorkel and a bath robe over there. But like you said, they, like I was saying, they didn't acknowledge you.
Starting point is 01:14:22 Yeah. You would say you picked a 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.
Starting point is 01:14:42 Until they realize you will make a money. And then suddenly like, oh, look at this rich asshole. Through he is. It's guys, I gotta put more garbage out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they would turn into, well, it's your job. You know, pick this up. Here, take this.
Starting point is 01:14:54 You have to take this. Yeah, what's the worst part to 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 we always use to keep like, nickels and dimes in the truck. And I'd be like, hold on, they always tell you, oh, yeah, you know, I pay a salary. So I, we always use to keep like nickels and dimes in the truck. And I'd be like, hold on, I'll give you your money back
Starting point is 01:15:09 because they would always say like, all right, each person gives you a nickel a year or a pen, and I would throw the nickel at them. Here's your money. The fuck out of my face. You gotta take this, the guys hold apartments out there. Yeah. It's like, dude, go away, no.
Starting point is 01:15:21 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 knew us Thank you went a long way with me. I 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, go fuck yourself. Yeah, agreed Your stuff would stay there for months. Oh, yeah, I fucking put it back in yeah. Yeah, I'll throw right back on your curve Dude, I'll take it. This is our spy flower to Vimbra
Starting point is 01:15:56 I would have picked it up and the next day fucking brought it back This yesterday with this comeback make him think he's crazy brought it back. Yeah, fuck it, put it back on a guy's doorstep. I got rid of this yesterday. Where'd this come back? I think he's crazy, bro. Now, what about, what's that? You had that, you had a lot, you know. People were very, you know, push it on. Yeah, I'd pay you salary and all that junk, so. Fuck you.
Starting point is 01:16:19 That's what I say to that, bro. Fucked 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 bootleg garbage man, you know, who started their own service, a guy who put like a retook a truck and just put three wooden plywood walls on him and talking about. To make the back of the truck a little taller, if it more becks.
Starting point is 01:16:40 Yeah, but I do fucking, our neighbor was one of those guys for a while, so his truck would always be out there. But he'd go do the rural routes, you know, and get him a little bit of garbage. 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.
Starting point is 01:17:03 We took everything. Until what year? No, it's still until this day. We had to take everything. So you'll throw a refrigerator in a back up a garbage truck? Yeah, well, our recycling trucks, they went to two sides. Oh, for recycling.
Starting point is 01:17:13 It's so annoying. Yeah. But there was something that didn't fit in the small side, you know, with the recycling trucks now that the city gets. So now, yeah, you'll call you up, you like, oh, you gotta go and throw it in the regular garbage truck.
Starting point is 01:17:26 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 stoved stuff like that you put on the other side. On the metal, on the, side. On the metal side. Yeah, on the metal side. Okay. Wow, and how do you decipher that?
Starting point is 01:17:49 Because a lot of times people just put a recycling bin, a big recycling garbage can't out there, right? Gotta be separated in a New York. But I didn't give a fuck. Right. We used to drive from early days. We used to open the sides of the truck, there's a door, so you could, the mechanics and stuff
Starting point is 01:18:02 can get in there and work on the compact or stuff. So you 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 fucking, the whole block with whatever. Just adding cash, just doing all in. It all winds up in the same place. Does it?
Starting point is 01:18:25 A good amount of it. The paper is recycled, 100%. Everybody gets crazy with the, you know, the bottles and the glass and all that. Unfortunately, I tell people the truth and they didn't ever want to hear it. Cans and stuff, yes, metal, they recycle. The bottles, they just break up
Starting point is 01:18:41 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's too expensive. So colored glass, what do you mean
Starting point is 01:18:56 while it's colored glass is valuable? Just because now you had a pigmented and put color into it, the regular glass, so it costs more to make. So like if you got, you know, like a green glass, it already has the color in it. So they melt it down and they use it again. But they stop using all that, like all the beer bottles
Starting point is 01:19:12 and stuff, they really don't use that. I remember Sprite used to come in like a green bottle. Yep, no more. That was crazy. You got your fucking Sprite, bro. Now that jamming you all up, you think it's Sprite zero now. Oh yeah. Sprite zero, dude, come out the closet, bro. it's Sprite zero now. Oh, yeah, yeah, Sprite zero dude come out the closet brown full Sprite
Starting point is 01:19:27 Give me full no caffeine. Yeah, I won't fuck yeah, I want pure sugar, bro What did did were there some accidents with the trucks? How dangerous did he get for people because if people didn't have commercial drivers license and They're driving those trucks in the beginning was there a lot of like a was there casualties? Was there yeah guys would casualties? Was there? Yeah, guys would do. There were a few guys that passed away. You know, and it was more of just people's stupidity. You know, I had one guy, I don't know why he was holding
Starting point is 01:19:54 something going in the truck while the ripping is on. The truck ripped, it pulled him in. Dude, literally next time I saw him, yeah, like this mechanical, like three finger metal thing. Oh, like a skill crane? Yeah, he was like, what? He was like picking up like teddy bears and shit. Get you a fucking cab.
Starting point is 01:20:09 I'm like, dude, what are you doing? Yeah. Well, my hand got stuck. He said his hand got stuck and sucked them in. And it literally just, it's on off. Yeah. Is it a blade right there? Wow.
Starting point is 01:20:22 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 was picking massive bundles up and he had the paper in the back of the truck and literally almost slid off his old fingers because his fingers were caught in the string.
Starting point is 01:20:38 And when the truck closed, they tightened the string up so much, dude, like, it looked like a ring got caught on all four of his, I was nasty. That surgically fixes fingers like his enlightenment. Wow. So there's some devenous ends to it.
Starting point is 01:20:52 Trash collector dies after inhaling discarded acid. Yeah, no, that's the guy. I think that's the stand out guy. Let's see. I have a 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 he knew I think might be the last name.
Starting point is 01:21:16 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 commission rushing to the burn unit of New York hospital, Touched off. The Brooklyn 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's cycle did
Starting point is 01:21:50 Explode it all over the dude and actually kill you instantly like yeah, it was it was shitty I think I want to say his last name was heeny, but I could be wrong. I wasn't on the job yet. So I didn't know But handly, he's handly. That's it. Wow Yeah, what is there other 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, I stayed away from all that, but there were definitely guys that did not,
Starting point is 01:22:16 were not good drivers. They clip people's toes and shim and hat. And I used to yell, watch your toes, cause people in the ass. Watch your toes, that's what you yelling. Yeah, because you know on the corn isim and hat and I used to yell watch a toes because people watch it. So that's what you yell. Yeah, because you know on the corner of Manhattan, you know, everybody standing in the fucking sidewalk, like standing in the crosswalk. It's like, dude, watch your toes.
Starting point is 01:22:35 Yeah, there was a guy, there was a guy in New York. I want to say it was Manhattan. I do just rolled and it was his partner just rolled right over his feet. Blue, they blow it. It blows out your ankle. Uh-uh. Yeah, when just rolled right over his feet blue. They blow it. It blows out your ankle. Uh-uh. Yeah, when they rolled right over his foot, his ankle blew out because of the pressure. Yeah, the weight of the truck. Oh my gosh, that's like a cartoon.
Starting point is 01:22:57 Yeah, nasty. Nasty shit. Wow. Got a buddy fall out of the truck. He was part he was having fun in the truck Let's put this way all the guy and just dude made a left and he rolled out his leg went under I Mean they graphed his foot they graphed everything they saved it But it looked like he was wearing a moon boot. Oh, yeah, you know got off the job, but anytime I saw him after that Some fucking like four times the size. Some Neil Armstrong fan.
Starting point is 01:23:27 I was a dragon of marshmallow around. It's crazy. Yeah, my dad had this buddy and one of his feet, you know, he used to see this commonly back in the day. Somebody would have that big soul on their shoe, you know, somebody be uneven, you know, and my buddy at his friend. And he would, his friend would always stand on this little piece of cement because it made him even, bro.
Starting point is 01:23:48 He'd be fucking, he like wouldn't leave it in the neighborhood, right by the ass neighborhood, yeah. He'd like kind of walk around it, like pivot around it, but he would, he fucking never leave that spot. Oh, the second he left off that bitch, bro. That's sort of, yeah, the world got kind of, uh, everything turned into a tea to tie to four. Yeah. Wow. So yeah, the world got kind of everything turned into a tea to tie to four.
Starting point is 01:24:11 Wow. So that's it's really really fascinating. I'm trying to think of some other. Yeah, I think you had Mike Rowan and he you know, he was one of the guys that years ago listed the sanitation as like one of the 10 deadliest drops. And you know, wow. And it's just more, do you 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, 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,
Starting point is 01:24:34 the guy's standing back there. Driving not paying attention to you. It's craziness. You know, everybody's in a rush, especially in New York. And you are no pain or mindless, so they just driving around. I mean, the truck or mindless, so they just drive it around. I mean, the truck can't get any bigger for you not to see. And they people who drive into the back of the truck all the time.
Starting point is 01:24:52 I had to do it hit me once. Larry, I see him in the, I'm at break and I see him bouncing off cause coming down the road. And I'm like, what's this dude doing? Like, ping, 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?
Starting point is 01:25:14 Like he thought we were getting frisky at eight in the morning. Next day and all, boom, the dude drills the truck. Literally drives right into the driver's side and like gas tank, in my like I'm like What the hell turned out to dude old dude was on all kinds of medication. Oh, yeah So yeah, do my dad sometimes with let he would go he'd like get into the post he go to the post office right my That was real old when I was born he was 70 and So at 80 years old he's taking me on rides
Starting point is 01:25:46 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 gross burden. He's like, well you just drive around. I can't legally park it. Well you drive around the block for me. And I was fucking 10 years old dude, you know, I was about five, I think I was five three or something. I'd hit a little growth spur and his vision was bad. And so I'm fucking next to you know I'm driving his Delta 88, bro, right? This big boat, no power steering, bro.
Starting point is 01:26:12 I fucking go around the block dude. And I don't know how big the block is, you know. I go around, I fucking hit seven, bro. And this thing was a piece of shit. Dude, look at the battleship. Oh my dad, he bought it off a couple of brothers and it had some 22s in the back right around the corner. And this thing was a piece of shit. Dude, the battleship. Oh, my dad, he bought it off a couple of brothers and it had some 22s in the back right around the corner.
Starting point is 01:26:28 So he was always listening like NPR, like with bass and shit. Like, the whole life didn't make any sense. Dude, I fucking hit six cars. I'm like, I'm finally getting back around to pick up my dad. He had no idea. What you been? The whole car is fucking piece of shit. No idea, bro.
Starting point is 01:26:46 God. What about the rat problem? Is that a, what kind of animal you do? I'll run into on the garbage route, bro. And beyond this point. Yeah, no. Just different areas had different, you know, Stan Island was like mice.
Starting point is 01:27:01 You know, you'd see some, you know, decent size, you know, like seven inch, eight inch rats with like, you know, you would 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, I'm not, mice is just a gay rat. I think. Yeah. They're just babies.
Starting point is 01:27:14 Yeah, just running around like it is. Yeah. They just squish them when they're 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 the eyes popping out. Oh, yeah. It's nasty, but yeah, I stopped doing that when I got a little older.
Starting point is 01:27:28 Yeah, yeah. I think you grow out of that. And the government will put lipstick on them and then fucking kill them. It's exactly. Oh, it's empty. So who the fuck? No, you know, it's like you're the bad guy. Exactly. I stepped on a few minds. Oh, well, kill me now. Now, what about the rat problem in the city? You hear about it. You know what they allegedly signed a Zard? The guys are some, this lesbian cheese hunter up there. Now fucking trying to kill him, right?
Starting point is 01:27:53 Which is fine. More power to her if she wants to fucking show up and go to war. I'm game, right? But how bad was the rat problem in the city? Well, even with that, like let's be honest, you ain't getting rid of them. There's no way.
Starting point is 01:28:05 And there was some big boys up there. The UN, woof. Cause you're right near the water there. Oh, I saw one wearing a Charles Barkley jersey. Dude, I wouldn't doubt it up there. I was, so there's one night, we're working picking baskets up, you know how there's corner baskets in Manhattan.
Starting point is 01:28:22 So there's just a basket on every corner where people throw litter and stuff, you know? Oh yeah. So there's all lined up in the 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 the basket like all along the UN. There's just more there because they don't want litter.
Starting point is 01:28:39 Okay. So there's just more baskets in the front of the UN. I think it's like the Epcot center of trash or something. No, no. So, but it's the Epcot center of rats. I mean, dude, I'm talking boys and I dumped the basket. So it was quick. Like once you started doing the baskets,
Starting point is 01:28:55 you spin off the truck quick, bang, bang. You're right back. Like literally taking me three seconds to dump a bell. Oh, so you throw it, dump it and you're back and you jump on the truck. Okay. You start the steps at the time. So I see Flutter and going on.
Starting point is 01:29:08 And dude, I mean, with the tail, this thing had to be 18 inches. Oh yeah, that's probably with the Rutgers, bro. Yeah, yeah, he was that full back. So, big boy. So dude, I'm working with this dude. I'm jump off the truck and I'm running along the truck. And I'm running along the truck. Away from it? Dude, I'm just running.
Starting point is 01:29:28 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 in the shovel to like kill it and just cycle it up. I was like, I ain't fucking around it.
Starting point is 01:29:39 Wow. Cause 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. No, it's funny to me, I'm not understanding it. So when the cycle goes up in the 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
Starting point is 01:30:07 towards the ledge of the truck. And then 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
Starting point is 01:30:22 that animal just pop out of there. Yeah, you know, you get possums, raccoons, uh, the mice, the rats. They literally just jump right out. Yeah. Now what's the most get here? Here's one right here. Garbers man saves kittens from trash. Jesus.
Starting point is 01:30:37 Yeah. I mean, Shana Tavade probably doing this. He shocked, man. Yeah. Anybody ever try to put a baby in the garbage room? So I won't tell anybody. If you know, no, no, and I'll know if you're lying to. they're probably doing this. It's shocked man. Yeah, anybody ever try to put a baby in the garbage, bro? So I won't tell anybody. No, no, no, no.
Starting point is 01:30:48 And I'll know if you're lying to it. All right, so I had like a year on a job. God hurt, I had this shoulder done surgery. So they do like this male carrying thing where you bring, you know, the male to like, like lower East garages. So you go to like the main area, pick up all the male, you give it to each garage. So I pull into one of the garages,
Starting point is 01:31:11 I forget somewhere I'm having two 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 into garage, everybody's in Tyvex suits, white Tyvek, you know, covered head to toe.
Starting point is 01:31:27 I got a t-shirt and pants on. I'm like, what the fuck's going on here? He has a Shriner's 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. Oh.
Starting point is 01:31:41 All right, I just, I don't even know if they found it. I just, you know. Nobody put the 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.
Starting point is 01:31:57 What about this video right here? Garbage man saves kittens from trash. Let's get a little volume on it. Let's do cutting into a little log. I'll look like he cutting open a bag of coke, huh, this guy. Whoa. Oh, he heard something. Oh, it's a A ball of cats, bro. Yeah, baby kittens. They heard good
Starting point is 01:32:33 Yeah, oh Gosh That's people for you man That's man, that'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?
Starting point is 01:32:54 Does it just think this, or 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 shit that you see in the garbage. Like that reminds me of the time I smell a skunk. I'm like, what the fuck is that smell in the back of the truck? Like that's something odd. So now I could smell it and
Starting point is 01:33:19 there was like a skunk in like a little path mark bag like that. We used to call them like the little plastic bags tied up and everything and I'm thinking 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.
Starting point is 01:33:39 Like who's playing with skunks? Like, perverts, perverts, I think. I wouldn't do it, bro. Yeah, people get rid of any lot. Yeah, like, I'm trying to think of the biggest animal. Somebody could get rid of without you guys noticing. Probably black lab. Oh, that was a yellow lab. That's what I still to this day.
Starting point is 01:34:02 I can see those guys crying up crying. And what do you guys think? Oh, crying. And what a gay guy as you think? Yeah, some would say. Yeah. And no judgment anyway, bro. Everybody's got a gay cousin or son or father. You know, these days, you can't even everywhere. And three generations, everybody's going to be just, doing Uber reats. Dip in there and toes into it. Oh yeah, it was, bro. What about on the home front?
Starting point is 01:34:32 What is the home front life like for a sanitation worker? Is it tough on like your home life? Is it easy on it? What kind of life is it? The winters were tough. Like I said, you know, if it snowed, you were stuck there. 12 hour shifts, 10 hour shifts. Like when you say stuck there, what do you mean?
Starting point is 01:34:50 Because it takes so long to get through the route. No, it's just like, if it snows, 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. The whole sand, everybody shuts down. New York don't stop. Like we're out there all night through the night, 12 hour shifts, spreading salt, plowing snow.
Starting point is 01:35:12 I mean, so you guys do other jobs instead of just the garbage. Okay, I didn't know this. We clean all the streets, the snow, we do the salt spread and the front and load of work. We do all that stuff. Really? God damn you, shit, I guess if the rangers needed a Zamboni,
Starting point is 01:35:26 he'd have to put one of these guys in the building. I'd probably put it off. Wow. But I didn't know that you guys do all those other jobs. Yeah, oh there's probably, if I had to guess over a hundred different job titles on that job, it's just not garbage man. There's so many ranking, like you could have a desk job,
Starting point is 01:35:43 you could have the guy who hooked me up with this, Johnny Lex, that was my boy, he had the desk job. That's a job. Now what's the desk job, what's that guy doing? Nothing. He literally is just setting up the days, what's tomorrow, all right, let me get all the cards in the routes ready for tomorrow. Pretty much nothing. Yeah
Starting point is 01:36:06 It's a you know, we call them titch ups. Yeah, so titch up. Yeah So Aaron there to do a fantasy football really And he's terrible at it. Is he he's own six I was talking to him last night. I don't Team said he probably had Aaron rogues. That's why probably an injury. Yeah'm like, the team said, he probably had air in Rob's, that's why he probably had a injury. Yeah, I don't think he did, but just said. But there was a lot of, and that winter aspect is a totally different animal.
Starting point is 01:36:34 Because you're doing just say, three, four days, you could get six inches of snow. Take you two, three days to settle in. Now you gotta go pick all the garbage up. That was left out for the last three, four days. So now every house that you normally do two days a week, now it's all double garbage, for one pickup. Because you missed one.
Starting point is 01:36:55 Well, yeah, and they're because of the snow. Exactly. Like Manhattan after a snowstorm, oh, bad news, man. Piles and piles of garbage. And unlimited garbage. It's unbelievable. You ever find somebody hiding in the garbage? You have to hit a bit, hit a dumpster with a fucking wrench or something to get a homeless guy out of there ever.
Starting point is 01:37:17 No, I never had to do that. It's pretty, nobody wants to be in the garbage in New York. Wow. It's funny because in movies and stuff stuff you always see this romanticized look of a homeless guy popping out of a dump 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 private The private guys those containers on the street where those guys are sleeping behind. Yeah, no, that's all private 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.
Starting point is 01:37:48 Those are easy packs. So they have forks on the front that lift it over the truck and then compact it in behind them. 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 up.
Starting point is 01:38:00 So that's called an easy pack truck. The ones that have the forks on the back, that make up on the front. Yeah, on the front. Oh yeah, go right into those two slots on the side of the dumpster And then they throw it back over the top. Yep, and whenever you throw that back over So it's sometimes just a party of trash come right down the front of you filthy trucks. Oh disgusting Disgusting
Starting point is 01:38:21 Sometimes the container come off would be hanging out the side of it You got to get somebody out drag it off. It's a fucking nightmare. Wow. Yeah. And then the other truck, the truck, you drove more, had a cyclor in the back. That was just you've drove in. Yep. Wow. Bag fed or something. What are they called? 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 industry changed over the time?
Starting point is 01:38:52 Well, now they actually just put out 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, because there are certain areas that will loaded with mice and rats, because they would just, you know, near swamps and stuff like that. Yeah. And how's the house? You go to grab a pale and they're scattering. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:39:13 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. You know, and it's just, it's never gonna work. Right, you know, Bloomberg tried to go to the arm, the arm that lifts it on its own
Starting point is 01:39:36 and one guy's in the truck and never gets out and never touches anything. I have that New Jersey now at my house. There's just not enough space. There's too many people in New York. Right, so like there's cars on top of cars. Right. So there's no room for the garbage truck to get to the garbage.
Starting point is 01:39:50 Right, there's never 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 Eric Adams, Wednesday, single family homes,
Starting point is 01:40:07 and small apartment buildings up to 10 units, we'll have to purchase the new cans from, and as yet under undetermined vendor, an effort to modernize the way the big apple collects its trash. Wow. Somebody's bidding on that contract that better, huh? Money, money, money. Fuck.
Starting point is 01:40:24 It's crazy. How much money there is. In garbage. Nobody thinks of it. Nope, because you're fuck out. Nobody realizes it. But to like that, like somebody's gonna make those pales now.
Starting point is 01:40:36 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 whenever I tie it. Right.
Starting point is 01:40:50 And then, oh, I know, let's bring it in. Damn. I mean, they DOT, not DOT, they pick up derelict vehicles. The sanitation does that too. Oh, they do? Yeah, any vehicles that, you know, the form and have to go out, tag them, you know,
Starting point is 01:41:06 right, whatever they did, if the cause not gone off the street with like no plates and stuff. Oh, yeah, definitely. They sent old trucks out, they take them too. Have you ever had to be involved in that? No, I didn't do with that. But you've had to be involved with salting the roads, or ever.
Starting point is 01:41:18 So, all of the roads, front and load is big like rubber tie machines. You just have to fill the spreaders. And then I would have to drive down certain blocks where you couldn't get 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, pilot up back there. And the bad storms you would get like a dump truck with you.
Starting point is 01:41:42 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 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 and loader I would have two dumb trucks with me and I would load the dumb 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.
Starting point is 01:42:09 Okay, so instead of getting the spreader, they go in and actually try and pick the snow up. With a front and 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
Starting point is 01:42:24 and then trash in the spring? No, it's just when it comes up, you go. Oh, right. You do it. But that was a fun part. That was fun. I went in front and load us. Yeah, that was good times.
Starting point is 01:42:34 Oh, that's cool. Because you didn't have to get out that much, huh? No, and you were like, you were like saving people. That's when people loved you. Uh-huh. They were areas where you couldn't get down. Like spreaders would slide off the road Yeah, we would have to record drag them off off a cliff like it was crazy
Starting point is 01:42:49 The winters were nuts, and then they were like all right get a machine up there and it was like the hills are like this bro And you know I had this boss who always wears a wears on Like what do you mean? All less names on the job. Like, where's on? Get them on the horn, let's go get them on here. Cause he knew, I would just tell everybody, stay away. Cause everybody's out there shoveling, throwing the,
Starting point is 01:43:13 more salt, I mean, 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 hitman in. Let's see what he's done. Oh hell yeah.
Starting point is 01:43:24 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? Oh, it all, listen, it's about the community. I know when it all comes down to it, you know, I still took pride in like, especially those days with,
Starting point is 01:43:43 you know, knowing that my mother had a drive, my family, people, friends have to drive on those roads, during the winter. So, yeah, there were guys that would hide, and not spread so much. But me, I was out there 12 hours sprint so I had no problem with it. So it is a sense of pride that 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 were like born for this job. And I didn't know how to take it. Like I was a little taken back.
Starting point is 01:44:13 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, I'm really throwing off. Like I'm just like, hey, thanks. Yeah, like I it on the say. And she was cool as shit, she was awesome. But because we had girls that did the job too.
Starting point is 01:44:30 Really? Yeah man. Wow. And some of them, I'd rather work with some of them than some of the other guys. Really? Yeah. There were, you know, women out there that were, you know,
Starting point is 01:44:39 hustlers. Oh yeah. You know. And then there were guys that, you always thought, you would go to, oh yeah, you can't work with me. You know, go jacked up. Yeah, you know, he's just doing that for the girls. Really?
Starting point is 01:44:51 Oh, help me, I can't lift this. Try to meet the women on the gym all day, pump an eye in, but they can't lift, you know, a hundred pound couch. Here's the swing couches in one shot. Oh yeah. You know? That's beautiful. Yeah, I think it's like, in some cultures,
Starting point is 01:45:06 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 or the job or something? Oh, there was some. Yeah. It was some out there. I never partake in that.
Starting point is 01:45:18 A lot of ladies trying to put that dumps down, yeah? Well, you got two pensions, you know? Oh, yeah. There were a few. I know a body dumpster, boy. Yeah. They're wet on you know, there were a few. I know. Body dumpster boy. Yeah. They're what on me.
Starting point is 01:45:28 They would definitely a few. And listen, you look at it like I just said, you know, you get two pensions, both these retire. Oh, it's a good life, you know. Let's go to Florida and stay on. What, um, yeah, the people, yeah, it was wherever a couple that met on the job and ended up getting married. Yeah. Wow.
Starting point is 01:45:46 Retired. One wound up being a boss. I don't know. His wife might have became a boss, but yeah, you know, listen, it happened. Love happens everywhere. Yeah, you're together a long time. Yeah, on the streets the old day and some guys
Starting point is 01:46:00 and girls hit it off. What are some other things people would collect out there in a trash? Anybody find anything really unique over the years, any bone structure, 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 didn't have time for it.
Starting point is 01:46:16 Like I said, I was running, I wanna get done. I wanna be out of the street. I don't wanna 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 there's one time I'm with my buddy Like I said, the people that don't pay attention to you, they drive into you. Right. It's just risky. Hot, you know, crappy days. But this one time, I'm with my buddy, you know, Louis and we're picking up this apartment building. And we open the gates
Starting point is 01:46:33 and is, I think was six or seven Joker poker machines. And 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, the cheese are allowed to them. Yeah. And so I worked at bars when I was younger and I knew, I'm like, oh yeah, the money stashed underneath. So we opened them up, there was nothing there. But I'm like, you know what,
Starting point is 01:46:53 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 tub of wear in it. And it would float, float in it fall perfect right down the slit So no, and so that was still blocked off. We dragged them back to the garage We beat the living piss out of these things with with sledge amus Voice walks in he's like I'm not even gonna ask what's up Right do we got 360 a piece seven hundred and twenty dollars
Starting point is 01:47:21 Doing it with the finest ten, $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. Yeah. Always found something that, you know, somebody was throwing out
Starting point is 01:47:35 and I didn't have to dig. Like it was next to the curb. I found a mole pad once in Manhattan. Oh, yeah. On the side of the, you know, right on the side of a basket, the corner basket there. And it was probably from like a Chinese restaurant, it was locked into turn left. So who's going to just keep driving in a circle? Kids must have stole it. And they realized, we can't use this. So they left it at the corner basket. Right. So I told my partner,
Starting point is 01:48:00 I'm going to 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, oh, and this guy I'm working with, like, damn Owen, you'll fuck me all up. Now I'm gonna get locked up for this shit. Right, we're staying on the fucking, we're stealing a molehead from somebody, you know? Yeah, from some Chinese kid. Yeah, like, the guys laying there holding bags.
Starting point is 01:48:22 And not so he's like, they just pulled up. They were like, it was a 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 chip. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:48:37 That was a good fun. Yeah, that's a good fun. Yeah. That's interesting, man. You know, I'm trying to think, I think I would like, I think I would like, I think I probably would like it. When I was younger, I had to do the trash at the house,
Starting point is 01:48:51 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.
Starting point is 01:49:11 Yeah, now what happened to the kids? Like that was a fad for a while where like a lot of moms would do the 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 like at the glass door. The mother would hear us and then they would open the main door and then there's like a sliding, like a screen door with glass and the kids just used to sit there. And I loved it.
Starting point is 01:49:38 You know, you get parents all the time. Like, oh, 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, it'll probably like, ah, don't do that, you know?
Starting point is 01:49:53 Don't grow up to be a garbage man. Yeah. Because they don't realize the money in it, right? You know. But now more people are gonna know, it's a good business. It sounds like you have to have a, you gotta keep a positive attitude though, huh?
Starting point is 01:50:06 That's it. Listen, the day goes by so much easier if you just get through the work. You have a good partner, a good relationship with your partner, it's awesome. There's so many other shitty jobs. Like I would take that over any city job in New York. Really?
Starting point is 01:50:21 Yeah, like you got to fire them in, you know, they're just wearing t-shirts trying to get free stuff. Oh Yeah, and they're fucking was beyond us. They're making chit. They're just eating Frank's back in there. Exactly, you know, no Judgment. I love these guys. Yeah, no 100% my brother was once retired once still long. Yeah, I got a lot of friends that do it I just bust their chops all the time because they're always wearing a fight the palm of t-shirt and like do you got Know the clothes in your yeah, oh they definitely they're fucking yeah, and then you light a fucking match and they're over there beating up a birthday cake Just a fucking flex Yeah, so fireman's here. Yeah, yeah
Starting point is 01:50:53 But meanwhile I laugh, I'll talk about my brother when I was quick my wife's brothers They'll come to my house and I got a fire pin the odd dude. It's like they're trying to light my house on fire Yeah, bro, what don't you put these out? Why are you starting to shit this big? And I got like a tin roof over it, it's metals melting. I'm like, dude, what's the point of this? Yeah, you bird feet of breath. You're looking at your bird feet of you,
Starting point is 01:51:14 you got a fucking grilled sparrow in there. Yeah, it's like, dude, what are you trying to prove? Are you trying to put another fire out here? Do that on their time, not mine. A lot of firemen are closeted. Pyromaniacs. Pyromaniacs, arsonists, barn burners, I hear do that on their time, not mine. A lot of firemen are closeted. Pyromaniacs. Pyromaniacs, arsonists, barn burners, whatever they're called, bro.
Starting point is 01:51:31 Flame babies, whatever they call them, bro. Crazy. Oh yeah, a bunch of fucking caracene mammals, bro. They don't give a fuck, dude. They're fucking drink caracene and then blow a fucking flame. They don't throw it. They don't give a fuck, dude, them guys. And the cops, it's tough, man.
Starting point is 01:51:45 I feel bad for New York cops. Do you? I got a lot of friends. You know, listen, there's bad apples, I don't care what industry you're in. People are idiots, the way they act, the way they treat people. Yeah. But just, it's just crazy.
Starting point is 01:51:59 How they treat New York cops. Like when I was growing up, you respected the cops. Yeah. That was it. You shit on the 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 led a lot of that happen, you know?
Starting point is 01:52:16 I think you have a lot of like the same types of folks doing a lot of crime that don't have any respect for police officers. I think you have a lot of kids raised with no families, no parents that don't have any respect for anybody. 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 heartbreak and dude. Yeah. Put a lot of those guys go through. Do you have a relationship with police fire the others,
Starting point is 01:52:46 the other like municipalities that would have course. No, it's yeah, yeah, uh, civil service. Yeah, the civil service. Yeah, of course, you know, they always, you know, they always call up, they got a 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 eating the ferry in Staten Island.
Starting point is 01:53:04 You had to go hit that with the plows and everything, get all that sort of spread it down. You know, I would always go to the five 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.
Starting point is 01:53:20 You know that you have to hit all those ramps. And I mean, it's nonstop. There's like one truck does that all day. Goes up and down. I mean Rodin 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 kick. 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 now, you know, if it's stupid shit, like tint in my windows and stuff like that.
Starting point is 01:53:56 Oh, right, don't worry about it. Yeah. Basic Asian crimes, really, I call those. Yeah. Every time I get stopped for that. 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? Every. So it's a real universal job. Yeah. We had the most diverse in the city. That's the most diverse city job.
Starting point is 01:54:19 And it was, dude, it was fun man. I had a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. I had a lot of cool people. huh? A lot of cool people. A lot of fun people. A lot of guys I still talk to. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 01:54:27 You know? That's so cool, man. I think there is something about the camaraderie. What was it like when you got back to like the house or whenever you, you know, was there a, what was that like, was there a shop or something? Where were you guys all get back to and hang out? Was there like a bunk house?
Starting point is 01:54:43 Yeah, you always had like 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 gross. No, people would go do the trash route and then come and say. Yeah, and then come and lay down on the couch. Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Starting point is 01:55:00 It's like, dude, what are you doing? Oh my God, bro. That makes me so sad. And then you listen, even the bathrooms in some of these places, like I always wanted to do like a study and go to guys' houses and see how they react, like how they are around their families. Because I'm like, if you do this here
Starting point is 01:55:19 and you don't clean up after yourself, like, what do you do home? Yeah. Like does your wife wipe your ass? Like what? 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
Starting point is 01:55:36 were on the job that you knew? Anybody? No, not like that. Yeah. A lot of the voices, they used to say it's cheaper to keep them. Really? That was the going saying, like, oh, you get marriage cheaper to keep them. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:55:47 Guys coming in with like paychecks for $1.99. Because that's how many kids in. Do you guys compete against other civil service groups? Like, is it like a volleyball squad or anything? No, we used to do like a softball thing within like on Staten Island. There's three garages. We used to do that for a few years, but nothing like, you know, other than that. Yeah. What does your son want to be a garbage man when he grows out? No. Believe it or not, my oldest doesn't even remember me being a garbage man. I used to
Starting point is 01:56:21 bring the truck. I used to bring that, but he was young, you know. And now we're in, I think 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. Wow. Started my own, you know, construction. I do bathrooms, kitchens, all that stuff.
Starting point is 01:56:43 And then my back went out. Oh. So, I've been on the shelf right now, getting back in the game. Are you on pain pills or not? No. I don't mess with that shit. Hey, man, brother.
Starting point is 01:56:53 No, I went on the medical marijuana for a while. Yeah. Just to take gummies. Oh, yeah. Okay, you got a piss, too? Yeah, I'm almost. All right, let's go over all piss and we'll come back up and finish up.
Starting point is 01:57:03 Is that cool? Yeah. Okay, great. What are Is that cool? Yeah, okay great What are you gonna do? Yeah, what is the retirement look like? What is a retirement look like so you get Yeah, did it give you like a Water a jacket is it like a big thing you get a pension you don't get nothing from you get the pension you get a pension Pension Health benefits, okay, or paid for life,
Starting point is 01:57:26 or your family until you're gone. Wow, dude, that's incredible. So there's a lot of value there. Yeah, everybody passes that over. You know when guys are like, oh, I gotta stay on the job, I gotta do 25 because it's, my pension's only this now. But they don't realize how expensive insurance is. Yeah, at least two grand for four people,
Starting point is 01:57:45 me and my wife and my kids. Yeah. So like you said, it's money. Yeah. Oh yeah, that's up to you. That's more in people. People pay as much to insure themselves. You know, it's something that was more than a mortgage
Starting point is 01:57:57 than their rent. Yeah. 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, like home construction
Starting point is 01:58:11 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 at five, six years old,
Starting point is 01:58:22 I was using sores. Oh, yeah. Because they didn't have no, I was using sores. Oh, yeah. Because they didn't have no safety shit on it back then. Oh, yeah. Somebody breaks in your home, you fucking skill-solve. My mother would scream. Get away from that. Because my father was at work.
Starting point is 01:58:36 So I was just, I made my, I think I was eight years old, I was building a tree house. Yeah, I always broke. My wife's like, me and my, my mother's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm just building a me and my mother's 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.
Starting point is 01:58:50 Yeah. Kick the step, slit my head open. That was the end of the tree house. Wow. But yeah, I just love working like woodwork and you know, all that stuff. Is your father still alive? He is.
Starting point is 01:59:04 Still doing it. Great dude. Oh, wow. Still doing it. Great dude. But then he went into different things. He became a court runner as well. He used to run around for a law firm. He did that.
Starting point is 01:59:15 And then he started working with me. That was about three weeks. Couldn't take that shit in a while. So he's still doing it. Home improvements. He's actually doing a bathroom right now. Oh, amen. I'm like, dude, you're crazy.
Starting point is 01:59:27 Yeah, but he likes to work though. Yeah, he 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 wow and oh my God, you could do this. Like I, yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:59:44 Yeah, I think it's something that's missing from my job too. A lot of times is that physical feeling of completing something, you know, that construction, the building. Yeah. You know, there's definitely something inside of us that wants to build or complete something. I think for a lot of us anyway.
Starting point is 02:00:06 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. You know, it's like, hey, what at, look, you want somebody to be happy? You know, you want them to do what they want.
Starting point is 02:00:21 Yeah, people always, there's always that thing you don't want to end up being a garbage man, you know, was that it? Did that always did that ever make you feel bad? You didn't think anything about it. Did he did was there any? Oh listen, everybody, yo, would say, oh, a garbage man, listen, that and like I said, always look down. But listen, I think it was shit. Yeah, I was making good money. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can do whatever you want. I don't give a shit. And your job sounds honestly as great. It sounds fun.
Starting point is 02:00:49 Dude, it was awesome. Dude, I got stuff. I didn't even get into craziness, but it really was. It's like you're on your own. Did you, your partner, the garbage truck? You just pick up garbage. They give you a route.
Starting point is 02:01:01 Here's the box. It's a blast. Yeah. And it's all, dude, I used to clip on a, like a speaker six in the morning. You hear me coming down the block, that should blast and dance music, rap music. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:01:13 Like bumping, picking garbage up, having fun. I never, 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. I was like, you know, I didn't hit. It's not HPV, dude.
Starting point is 02:01:29 Yeah, it's a job. Exactly. Somebody's got to do it. But yeah, I loved it. We got into a real quick story, but my buddies come flying up a one way. And now me and my buddy, Louis, would down, like,
Starting point is 02:01:44 we're pointing down a one way. They come flying up the wrong way. I'm like, what the way and now me and my buddy, Louis, would down, like, it's, we're pointing down a 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. Could you just do that all the time on the job? You call out the friends, hey, listen, my routes heavy today, right? Like, can you come and grab this block?
Starting point is 02:01:56 Yeah, no problem. You always help each other out. So, oh, something, two, they jump out the truck, they start whipping us with eggs. Uh-uh. There was like a round Halloween. It might have been Halloween, right? So they're chucking eggs,
Starting point is 02:02:08 blah, blah, all over the truck. I'm running. Yeah, like they're throwing eggs at us. I mean, my buddy, Louis, actually I'm throwing garbage and Louis 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,
Starting point is 02:02:23 they drive away. So now you always have blocks that intertwine. 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 out at the, there's a food store right there. There's people walking on streets, everything,
Starting point is 02:02:47 do what hide and beyond cause. And they pull up and get stuck at the light. Do we whip in? Oh yeah. Baa-baa-baa, they would, COVID heads of tow, they couldn't get out, they were blocked in by cause. Where we had the chance to run.
Starting point is 02:03:00 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 haggin I don't that's crazy man, but no it's fun. Yeah, nobody's even paying attention to that fucking fun, dude Oh, that's cool and could you listen to music in the in the vehicle? There's no music in there. Yeah, no you would bring radios in on your You would get like a radio or boombox is something like that You would get like a radio or boomboxes, I'm like that. But you listen to what you wanted to. The country music was my thing, you know, later in my role.
Starting point is 02:03:30 Yeah. And when I first started, you know, 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 you then. Oh, I think so too. Music helps everything for sure.
Starting point is 02:03:44 Yep. 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, that's okay. Yeah, I mean, it's, 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.
Starting point is 02:03:59 Okay, I'm done. It's not like a, I don't understand unions fully. So maybe you even have any explanation to me about what union, because you were part of a union, right? Yes, I was. Okay.
Starting point is 02:04:08 So how does that even, for some jobs, you have to be in a union to have a job. Yeah. Certain businesses run under union standards, which means you have to have paid dues. Um, and you know, whatever it is monthly, you pay dues and, and you stay in good standard within the union, not, you know, and then you monthly, you pay dues and you stay in good standard within the union. Not, you know, and then you get into like iron workers and all that. Those unions are totally different.
Starting point is 02:04:30 Okay. Because those unions are paying those guys pensions. Okay. To me, when I work for New York, yes, we ran for a union. Like, there's a different union for us, the five 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. Okay. Like they, I have nothing to do with the union anymore. I don't go to meetings. I don't, you know, pick it line, I don't do all that
Starting point is 02:04:53 nonsense no more. Did you guys ever have to strike? We couldn't. We were signed on the tail of law. Okay. So the tail 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 crazy to do the job you could never lose the job. I'm dead honest literally I knew guys that killed people that worked on the job. Yeah. They went to prison. They 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 and an accident and somebody got hurt That's probably the only way you can lose your job. I see
Starting point is 02:05:31 So, but the unions it's tough. It's listen, they're great It's just it's it's expensive. Yeah. What type of injuries happen on a job to guys? A lot like I said I had my my left knee, my niscus surgery, my right rotator, my left 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.
Starting point is 02:06:00 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 my, yeah, kitchens and bathrooms at my speed, not running four miles every day. My back just locked up on me. So I had to go on in the knife. Was it, was it hard to adjust whenever you retired? Yeah, retirement, everybody, oh, I'm going to retire. It's not worth it. That's why I'm going to start working again. Back in the back of the trash. No, no, no, no. Sanitation. No, I'm actually looking now just to get into something simple,
Starting point is 02:06:29 nothing crazy. I'm not one of those, oh, I need a big high paying, just something basic. Just want to stay busy. Because it's honestly, dude, it's not healthy. When you sit around. Yeah, you're just sitting over. Oh, it's not around.
Starting point is 02:06:42 You know? It's good for two or three days and then you're like, oh shit. Yeah, I'll give it like two weeks three days. And then you're like, oh shit. Yeah, I'll give it like two weeks. Yeah. But then you're like, now what? And yeah, I do my lawn neighbors. You're taking a cat for a walk or something like what the fuck am I doing? Exactly.
Starting point is 02:06:55 Yeah. You fucking sell and lemonade. And you drop it. It's fucking getting sad and nickel piece. Yeah, you're out there selling a little lemonade. You turn a vibe from one to two PM. No, my're out there selling a little lemonade, turning a vibe up from 1 to 2 p.m. No, my wife thinks I'm crazy because I take my lawn very seriously. Oh yeah, I quit.
Starting point is 02:07:11 What did you buy for her too? God, who's retired us? My lawn's fucking this. I need more water, I need more this, I need this. Oh, you're crazy. But what else am I gonna do? Where'd you meet your wife that you have her before you had the job? No.
Starting point is 02:07:30 Oh, no, I was on the job, I think, five years. Wow. And I met my wife. Just a bar scene. I would bring something up if 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. Okay, I promise. Met her there, you know, hello, this is, that's about it.
Starting point is 02:07:44 Then I started seeing around the bars, my buddy. Are 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 just, do snort and stack or two
Starting point is 02:08:00 and fucking hold the ball. But see, that's the old, like, stand out, like I said, we were in bars 15, 16 years over. Oh, yeah. So like, it started getting boring at 21, 22. Yeah. But she was in college on stand out, and she went to wag the college,
Starting point is 02:08:15 and she was always in the bars. My buddy got rest of the soul, you know, didn't do so well with that party and end. And he was dating her friend. So she was like, oh, you got a date, Wayne, you got a date, Wayne. Whatever, you know, we finally, I'm Wayne.
Starting point is 02:08:31 Yeah, I'm Wayne, I'm here. I'm the guy. But then we just hit it off. We started bullshitting, she would tell people she probably still tell you today. Like, oh, he was following me around. I'm like, he probably were. No, but you're five years older than you.
Starting point is 02:08:46 I've been in these bars for 10 years longer than you. Don't tell me that these are my bars. This is your background. This is my foreground. I think when you're tall, people can always see you wherever you are. I'm always above. Right, so people are always like,
Starting point is 02:08:58 oh, that guy's following me. I'm not following, I'm just fucking over here. Yeah, that's a 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 man, or sanitation work, do you have to sit her down and tell her? Oh, no, she know. 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
Starting point is 02:09:24 to start to admire like this fucking guy gets his job his work done. Well, 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 down porn, you still gotta go. So it is, and I never wanted a paddle in the back, like the screw that, you know. It was just more of knowing like, how your day's gonna go from the minute you wake up here in porn, rain, or, you know, it's gonna snow today, all right.
Starting point is 02:09:57 Well, I'll see you tonight at eight o'clock at night, and you'll leave in that six in the morning. I wanna get home eight, nine o'clock at night. So there wasn't, listen, it was good money. I think her family knew, like, oh yeah, I'm dating this guy, he works for sanitation. Oh, that's a great job. It's a city job, like it's known, right.
Starting point is 02:10:16 But, yeah, 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, you can make a money, you don't know that there's a pension 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
Starting point is 02:10:38 feet away? You know what it is? The maggot 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 maggots.
Starting point is 02:10:55 Dude, I just got used to be walking around they're all my arms. They would come out of the truck, splat on your arm, like nasty. I'd be like, blowing them off your arm while you're on the back of the truck. It's part of the truck, splat on your, like nasty. I was like, 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
Starting point is 02:11:10 that would come out on the cycle? Like I'm talking something Kelly Slater would flirt with, you know. So this woman and I knew her from the neighborhood. I went to school, well I didn't go to school with a daughter, but I knew her daughter from high school. And he used to hang out with her and her friends. I went to school, well, I didn't go to school with a daughter, but I knew her daughter from high school. And he used to hang out with her and her friends. And she comes out, she's like, oh, Wayne, I got,
Starting point is 02:11:30 I can't lift this sofa and it was in the driveway. I'm like, yeah, I'll get a, go back inside, downporn. So we throw this 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, no, I want to get, she's trying to help me give us something, you know, for taking this stuff. Really give you a couple of muffins or something.
Starting point is 02:11:48 It cycles, dude, from head to toe, it was brown water. She literally had maggots like on a face. I was like, get in the house and go take a shower. She's like, what is all this? I was like, what are eyes closed? Oh, I'm like, just get in the fucking house. I told you don't stand here, you know? That's the devil's back wall.
Starting point is 02:12:08 Show me, you know what that? It just happened because we were uphill and the rainy days, now you're lifting every pale, it doesn't have a lid, but order 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 trucker at August?
Starting point is 02:12:25 Who's on the street? No, well, we used to have drain pipes, but then they welded them all shut because like people would complain that trash was 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 would stop up all the water on the bed days. So there's some strategies to the game. Listen, just because we're golfers, man,
Starting point is 02:12:50 we ain't stupid. Yeah. Course enough. Yeah. I never think that those guys are dumb. I don't know what I think. I think it's just also the tough part about that job is if you're just like someone who lives somewhere,
Starting point is 02:13:02 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 cop stay around and fucking, you know, do something with you or whatever bullshit with you. Or like in a neighborhood, yeah, when I was growing up, like some girl would all, you know, a cop would always be flirting with somebody's,
Starting point is 02:13:18 some lady or something her husband's missing or whatever and they probably did it but they ain't telling nobody in that or they'll be a flirting then fucking splitting, you know, cutting up donuts with a plastic knife on the hood or the fucking cruiser. You know, flirt with Michelle over here who's always all, dude, this lady by us,
Starting point is 02:13:34 we get all fucking licked up. She'd be drinking dacaries and she'd, uh, late. 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 shorts, like car that was like a hot rod or something she'd start that bitch in the With these shorts shorts and then lay on the fucking hood up and do the fuck and say like pervy shit out loud Like don't you miss me? She's saying don't you miss me when any fucking know her like who the fuck is this lady bitch?
Starting point is 02:13:57 I'm eight We sit out there watching But yeah cops you get to you and up talking with them. You know, there's some communication, but y'all's job, it's kind of just hit and run. It's hit and run. And even the guys I have now, you know, like I give them a hundred out of tip during Christmas.
Starting point is 02:14:18 Listen, I did the job. Like I, 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 I want you to get wet, you get days. Yeah, there's good days. There's a lot more good days than, you know, the rainy days. And I want you to get wet, you get wet. Yeah, you're done. Um, but like I have people now tell me, what do you mean you tip them?
Starting point is 02:14:31 I'm like, dude, it's, they're, you, these guys who pick my stuff up, that's private. They're not making what I was making in the city, you know, and it's, it's a lot, man. They're still, they're doing you a service and they always say, everybody's always, you know, line was all, well, you know, that's their job. They have to pick it up, they got to take it. And I would tell people the same, my job, you know, I'm here to pick up your household garbage. I'm not here to take all your demo
Starting point is 02:14:56 from your construction job on your house. And that was always where the fine line of like arguing, fighting with people, like, I ain't gonna fight with you. It's garbage. Like, why are we fighting over garbage? Right. Just get a dumpster and I'm not picking this up. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:15:10 Case settled done. Yeah, if somebody tried to go to blows with yourself. Yeah, a few times. When and a minute. Well, the woman, it was a husband and wife and they had bags of tile out and 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.
Starting point is 02:15:28 So that's like razor blades, porcelain tile. I don't know if you ever been cut by porcelain it sucks. 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 off on a belly and shit I'm like good looking you you animal, you know turns out she's a nurse. Oh, yeah Sorry, that's kind of mean, I'm getting mean.
Starting point is 02:16:05 No, and she says, you know, and it was fucked up, what she said. She was like, you know what, if you ever come into my hospital and you need help, you know, fuck you. Uh-uh. I said, you know, and now, like I said, I'm not a blow my top line, it's garbage.
Starting point is 02:16:17 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.
Starting point is 02:16:29 I told my partner, 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, you know, she's calling.
Starting point is 02:16:41 She got three more and one 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. Yeah. He's like, listen, my boy's called. He's like, just let her throw the rest of the bags in.
Starting point is 02:16:53 I'm like, I don't wanna go back there. So we went back anyway. Wow. Because I just don't wanna deal with, I don't wanna fight on my other end. So I go back there now, her burly six, eight husbands there. Uh, uh. And he gets in my face, right?
Starting point is 02:17:07 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. My old 67 year old partner jumps out the truck and right in his face starts pushing him. He's like, dude, you get the fuck back in the house. What's wrong with the shit in?
Starting point is 02:17:24 Get the fuck out of my pond in his face. Yeah. I was like, good for you. No. He's like, dude, you get the fuck back in the house. What's wrong with this shit in? Get the fuck out of my pond his face. Yeah. I was like, good for you. Yeah. Good for you. But you had that here and now. Yeah. People want to find his garbage.
Starting point is 02:17:32 What are we fighting over garbage for? Yeah, so wild, man. It's interesting. I'm trying to think if there's anything else out of it. I don't know, I don't know, I want to understand about the job. Oh, if you had boots on, how do you keep the water from getting into the water? Oh, you don't know, I don't know, I want to understand about the job. Oh, if you had boots on, how do you keep the water from getting into the trash water? Like I said, you had rain boots, but those were regular boots,
Starting point is 02:17:51 but it's just been soaked since. And you just put them like on top of your locker. Hope they dry by the next rain storm. Because they're if not, wet boots suck. But what are you going to do? This one time this guy goes, why are you running through the street? It was raining. I said, because I hate wet boots, I turn around. I'm like, I just think I said something like, I hate wet boots. You know what? You know that feeling?
Starting point is 02:18:11 I turn around and realize he was in a wheelchair. I'm like, this motherfucker probably came and feels legs. I'm like, dammit. Buddy ain't got to worry about wet boots. Exactly. But that's the thing. It's like, Dodging, you tell people, I'm Dodging rain drops.
Starting point is 02:18:25 Yeah. Oh yeah. But everything got wet. Dodging rain drops, that's a good term. So your wife was good with it. What kind of a lot of work did she get into? She was in medical sales, medical device sales. So like when you have surgeries and stuff,
Starting point is 02:18:42 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 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 within X Jackson with an X Jackson with an X Yeah, like Jackson who's the starting quarterback for Ole Miss Jackson Dart is that what an X is that JX oh in JX S oh yeah, no, we left the S off. Oh wow. Yeah, fuck yeah, Jackson on like you lot of us
Starting point is 02:19:26 Wild and shit Okay, she got you a family to Parker and Jackson. Yeah, my boys 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 my the Jackson my six year old is sterical Do really? Oh from 5 30, bro. He does not stop. And we joke with the 10 year old, he joke all the time. Well, like, dude, there's got to be an off button. And it's kind of, that, that, that.
Starting point is 02:19:52 Like, do you see this? That, that, asking me questions. Like, while I'm getting lunch ready for them and breakfast, then it's just non-stop. Yeah. But I love it. Yeah. I don't mind any part of it.
Starting point is 02:20:03 I do anything for them, of course, because they're my kids. But like, that's gonna be the any part of it. Like, I do anything for them, of course, because they're my kids. But like, that's gonna be the hardest part of me, like, missing now the mornings and then missing when they get home from school. That's gonna be, you know, if I stock in home later, that's gonna be the shitty part. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:20:17 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's how society is. I wonder if we're supposed to be like that or what human beings are supposed to be like. You think about the old days of like when people probably lived around a campfire and everybody was
Starting point is 02:20:38 fucking home, but you were living around a campfire too. So I think it was probably probably interesting Yeah, what would you say to somebody who's thinking like could I be a Sanitation worker? 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 I try state if you live in New York It's like a known thing take all the tests. It's the best thing.
Starting point is 02:21:05 I know a buddy of mine, his daughter came on, he waited long enough, because his daughter did so good on the test that his daughter got on the job. 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,
Starting point is 02:21:22 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 it's okay. And yeah, there are grueling shitty parts about it, but the job was great, man. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:21:33 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 frickin' pretty ugly. Well, now they don't do that, don't want. Now they allow all of them to take the test and see how the list saw. But there's 120,000 people taking the test now that shows you how much people want this. And like somebody called me, they're like, oh, yo, my nephew took the test.
Starting point is 02:21:57 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. There's 6,000 guys on the job. So everyone has to go to work that they die.
Starting point is 02:22:12 The next day of 6,000 die. It's like, so, do you see really, I said, if you got that kind of number on that test, you should look for a different profession. Yeah. 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.
Starting point is 02:22:33 The guys loved it. They 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 is retirement pensionist. He's almost bringing six figures in retired. How do you get your pension to be higher?
Starting point is 02:22:48 They take you're 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, you know, for three years. So this guy's got another buddy, you know, 80 that's what you get half of it. So you get half of your base, you know, for three years. So this guy's got another buddy, you know,
Starting point is 02:23:07 80,000 for the year. That's what he's gonna get every year plus the benefits and all that. He'll get 80,000 a year. How long does a pension last? Until you die. Uh-oh. But you could, we gotta get it.
Starting point is 02:23:21 But you take the test, you gotta get a New York address though. Yeah And now I want to do that, but They crush you that's crazy, bro, but But yeah, it's that's part of it though. You you build up your pension to you know get to a point where you'll leave A lot of guys don't leave like I said earlier earlier, like they don't make it to, you know, so, but you could also sign off. Like I could have given my wife like a percentage
Starting point is 02:23:49 of my pension for the rest of her life. But it just didn't know how she does. Yeah, what was, you know, little early for that, yeah, I'm not gonna count hard. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I know. When these good. Yeah, when do you be willing?
Starting point is 02:24:02 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, yeah, what's that like? They really don't, I mean granted, it's a sad thing to do a whole memorial thing, like they're like lining the streets with sanitation workers when they're bringing a casket like any fine.
Starting point is 02:24:23 They do. 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 the payment. No, because you're going. Yeah. So if that's not in line and then you die, like if you're working, it's not the way it rolls.
Starting point is 02:24:46 Wow. I know a guy, you know, unbelievable. They forced them to the clinic. We had this clinic at work where you would go and these quack doctors would tell you you feel better than they're like, you know, it's like they got the Jedi shit. Oh yeah. Oh, you feel good. Go back to work if you were hurt.
Starting point is 02:25:04 And they forced this guy to work and he fucking dropped dead on the standoff. Very going to the going to the clinic. I felt awful for his wife and he was such a good dude. Why and who has a crack doctors a city? Oh, because they want you back on the city. People want you back on the job. So the I think the city what they do is they they look for guys that lost their a private practices like as as doctors and they hire them for pennies on the dollar. So they hire those people then? Yeah, and they're quack doctors.
Starting point is 02:25:30 Wow. They suck. Yeah. I had my finger, I was picking up one night and now you know, you run into the streets because it snowed so now you finally pick and garbage up and not a lot of people would garbage out after the snow. It's like they become like Hermits and just stay in their house so they don't have garbage. It's like I
Starting point is 02:25:50 Grab a sewing machine. I throw it in the truck and it's still at a needle so it fish hook my thumb So my whole thumb like flapped over this way blood pouring down my arm So I go have stitches. I literally still have 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, because when I get gangrene from work, oh, you could do desk work in the garage.
Starting point is 02:26:13 I'm like, do this the dirtiest place on earth. A garage and a sanitation garage, it's gross. So the desk and just filthy. Nobody cleans them. So until you threaten them, we're like, oh, a lawyer, you know, I'll sue your ass. Oh, I take another few days off Yeah Like it's just that's crazy You have to fucking threaten the sue doctors who are just trying to get you back out there
Starting point is 02:26:38 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 try to sit out for seven years Because they got a bet, you know, they got a hip flex or whatever I had a guy Yeah, like his cut that he would go outside the building and scrape it against the building outside and just go back in and get another three days still bleed and dock Okay, take another three days Damn, it's like dude, but then it sucks because there's guys that are fucked up
Starting point is 02:27:01 Yeah, you know like they threaten my job once when when I really hurt my back, I had my shoulder done and they were like, oh, we're gonna force you off the job. Cause I was on light duty and shiver like 18 months. And it's like, you're gonna force me off the job. Like, I'm in the year 16, like with me. They didn't give you a number. That's it. Can people, any handicapped people do your job
Starting point is 02:27:22 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 and I'm gonna fuck this on a job. Yeah. Yeah, the way they... Well a lot of autism people do the job too. I wouldn't doubt it. You know?
Starting point is 02:27:34 Listen, autism, it's not in a laugh about joke about my, both my kids are on the spectrum. Oh yeah, we're on it. But they're awesome, you know? I was probably on it, like you said, they didn't test for that shit back in the day. Fuck, no. We were're on it, but they're awesome, you know, I was probably on it. Yeah, like you said, they didn't test for that shit back in the day. Fuck. No, we were just on it.
Starting point is 02:27:48 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 either one of the other. It was they never said like, oh, yeah, he's going to be an astronaut. Like, you know, like he's real smart. No, he's shy. It sits in the corner. The other kids hopping off the walls. And that's what it was. Yeah, you, you, you, you just hope that
Starting point is 02:28:14 you had something in the middle problem. Exactly. Or at least that guy gave you one of each and all your ADHD's, elemental, P's 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 almost like the other group. It's just like, come on, man. How many more letters do you gonna, you know, it's just everybody gets?
Starting point is 02:28:36 Everything, yeah. 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-E-G-U. I'm like, what you're a fucking, and I fucking DH 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, be on the same thing. I can always say it like. What is just everything fucking crazy now, man.
Starting point is 02:28:57 Dude, what? It's not, man. Yeah, look at this, this is the term now. LGBTQ, I P 2 S A A up, 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.
Starting point is 02:29:16 Oh, yeah, but it'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. So they got it. What was it like? What were some of the holidays?
Starting point is 02:29:27 Like, what was the holiday? Was there a day of the year when you got the most trash? I have to any holidays. 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.
Starting point is 02:29:41 And we used to have to go in 12 to 8 to go pick it up. And 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 would done for the night. Okay. So dudes with literally, it was like smoke coming out of the tires. Woo! 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. And you steal and garbage.
Starting point is 02:30:10 Then you pull up like, now I don't know anything. I pull up to the, and it's all gone. I'm like, oh, it's some nice person took home my garbage. Yeah. But then they're like, oh, yeah, now you have to go do more house to house stuff because