“Kick the Can Down the Road” — boy, we have heard this phrase so often lately coming from the mouths of our Congress people and blathering commentators on the “news” channels. But last Friday night, as I sat on the ground waiting for a concert to start at the Bluesapalooza, an amazing blues and beer festival in Mammoth Lake, CA, I didn’t just get to hear it: I witnessed it firsthand. Back in my grandfather’s day and age, “Kick the Can” was a game that kids during the Great Depression played. But now it has an uglier connotation, implying that one is not taking care of the business that needs to be taken care of now. You know, procrastination. So, back to my personal observation.

A guy walks by a trash can and the can catches on the back of his folding chair that he is taking to the concert. He either doesn’t realize he has done it or chooses to completely ignore it. The next walker behind him is thoughtful enough to tip the trash can back up, but fails to see a need to bend down and pick up the two empty water bottles that have fallen out of the trash can. Oh yeah, you heard me: two empty water bottles in a standard trash can. Not a recycle bin. HORROR of HORROR! Here I am, out in nature, in a stunningly lovely outdoor concert venue, where it is constantly preached to those of us attending the event that we must police our trash so that wildlife won’t get into it. Yet they are serving bottled water at every booth — AND NO RECYCLE BIN! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I digress. So we now have an upright trash can and two plastic water bottles lying on the ground. Now here is where it gets just downright stupid. I counted eight people that literally kicked these bottles “down the road.” And get this: one of the “kickers” was the wildlife officer that was on patrol — you know, the “don’t feed the bears” guy, complete with badge and big belt buckle! They kicked them, in fact, about a total of eight feet away from the trash can and then one landed in my lap! At this point, I declared my experiment of human observation over and picked up the bottles and threw them in the trash.

It was just incredible to me that here we were, out in nature with a bunch of “nature-loving” people — many clad in their eco-friendly clothing and eco-friendly shoes — kicking trash repeatedly. I guess that this proves the newer definition of kicking the can down the road is absolute truth (and it proves that people are complete slobs!).