My family was cleaning out their house. They decided they were simply going to throw away everything they didn't want anymore. I begged them to sell or give their unwanted items away, but they said it was too much trouble.
My dad was taking out the garbage from the kitchen trash can, and I saw plastic soda bottles through the bag.
"Daddy, you're supposed to recycle all plastic!" I yelled at him. I was nearly crying.
My dad said he didn't have time to recycle anymore.
The next day, he and my mom put all the trash out at the curb. For some reason, my friend Emily added her family's trash to our stack as well. Our whole front lawn was nearly filled with trash. The largest item was a very old school bus with no wheels. It read "Athens City Schools" on its side.
I was watching out the window of my sister's bedroom when the garbage truck came by. The garbage men started going through our stuff and taking some it for themselves. A lot of it was my and my sister's baby furniture. I couldn't understand why my parents hadn't wanted to keep it, just for old time's sake. At least I was happy when the garbage men seemed to like the furniture.
I ran out of the house to see exactly what was going on. Not only were the garbage men going through our stuff, but neighbors were stopping by to look through it as well. I figured that if people wanted our garbage so badly, it wouldn't be wrong to try to make a little money off of them. So I did. I sold some old measuring spoons to a Mexican guy for a dollar.
I kept seeing things in all the garbage that I could have used myself. My mom had thrown out a bunch of old mixing bowls that would have been great in my apartment's kitchen. I don't know why I didn't go grab them out of the trash bag.
By that point, the mess had gotten so big that the garbage men had hauled in a huge dumpster and put most of our stuff in it. The dumpster just sat on our driveway. I didn't know what they were going to do with it.
What bothered me the most was the presence of these two huge stuffed dogs. No one had taken or bought them from us, and I didn't want them to be thrown away. They were darn cute, for one thing. I knew that they could have made some kid happy, and they certainly weren't ready for the junkyard. Still, I didn't do anything to rescue the dogs from the trash. Throughout the dream, I felt powerless to do anything with my family's "trash." All I could do was hope that other people did the right thing.
