iHeartTheTouge
01-05-2009, 03:18 AM
this an article i just read in our local Style Weekly paper. i found it pretty interesting. hopefully it will get some of you thinking too. +Drunkpoast
In the Dumps | Articles/Archives | Style Weekly Richmond's alternative for news, arts, culture and opinion (http://www.styleweekly.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=77638A8B11F04593AB81548D29882B25)
After one of the worst retail holidays in memory, the search for economic clues starts — and ends — in the garbage truck.
After 21 years of picking up after jolly old St. Nicholas, James A. Lambert Sr. knows the drill.
Lambert’s thick frame, curly Santa-style beard and impish smile make him the perfect post-holiday elf. And for two decades he’s dutifully been there to catch the mountain of discarded packing boxes, reams of multicolored ribbon and billowing clouds of tattered wrapping paper trailing behind Santa’s less-than-environmentally-friendly sleigh.
Each year on the morning after Christmas, Lambert rises before dawn and makes his way to the Henrico County Department of Public Utilities depot off Woodman Road. Suiting up in blue overalls and a rugged, dark-blue canvas coat, he boards his sleigh: a Henrico County garbage truck.
In the Dumps | Articles/Archives | Style Weekly Richmond's alternative for news, arts, culture and opinion (http://www.styleweekly.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=77638A8B11F04593AB81548D29882B25)
After one of the worst retail holidays in memory, the search for economic clues starts — and ends — in the garbage truck.
After 21 years of picking up after jolly old St. Nicholas, James A. Lambert Sr. knows the drill.
Lambert’s thick frame, curly Santa-style beard and impish smile make him the perfect post-holiday elf. And for two decades he’s dutifully been there to catch the mountain of discarded packing boxes, reams of multicolored ribbon and billowing clouds of tattered wrapping paper trailing behind Santa’s less-than-environmentally-friendly sleigh.
Each year on the morning after Christmas, Lambert rises before dawn and makes his way to the Henrico County Department of Public Utilities depot off Woodman Road. Suiting up in blue overalls and a rugged, dark-blue canvas coat, he boards his sleigh: a Henrico County garbage truck.