Have you ever found good beer bottles or cans tossed by the side of the road?
From bargain beer to fast food remnants, the garbage that weekenders carelessly toss onto the county road near our place is a sad indicator of the way they treat their communities and their bodies.
As we take our daily run we find cans of Coors, Bud or Keystone (ugh), but we’ve never once seen a good microbrew bottle or can that was chucked from someone’s vehicle. What does that say about the typical consumer who likes pisswater beer?
Cigarette packaging also makes up a good majority of roadside garbage. And as for fast food containers, just look for the Golden Arches.
Personally I think there should be a garbage tax imposed on anyone who buys cheap beer or takeout from crappy fast food joints. Don’t you?
Editor’s Note: I vote for a garbage tax on these things for the same reason that many cities charge consumers for plastic grocery bags. Not everyone lets their bags blow all over the landscape, but a large majority DO pollute our world. The same holds true for cheap beer, fast food and cigarette packaging.
Cheap beer? Cheap garbage? Fast food containers blowing about in furious cyclones across our vast and sunken chest nation? When’s it gonna end? When will the apes finally rule our planet?
They will but until the great ape asset acquisition we’re going to have to take our brethren’s bad habits in stride and just pick up after our itty bitty selves. Yes, Americans pollute their decaying country trashy glee, but behaviors of indifference suggest symptoms of a deeper problem – cultural indifference to national hygiene!
Drinking cheap or ill regarded beer is a well established right within our borders, dropping sub-standard beer encasements on our innocent land is not. “Don’t Mess with Texas” speaks to a keep Texas clean campaign popularized some years back, it has nothing to do with defensive posturing over Texas’ good or bad character, no, no, no my fellow minions who will soon know the wrath of their ape overlords, but rather it speaks to Texan pride with it comes to littering or rather not littering.
When Pierre Boulle wrote “Planet of the Apes” back in ’63 the question posed several times in his clever book was: what defines savagery and what defines civilization? Beer of ill repute or wanting in flavor has spilled all over the cultural line over what defines good beer from that which deserves little or no consideration beyond novelties sake. Case in point, Pabst. We laugh, castigate, jibe, demean and even slander those who would consume such a weak effort to do what humanity has done for thousands of years – make good beer!
You could drink from the bottom of a German porta potty in late September and have a sweeter experience, but why one has to ask, why doesn’t our nation take it’s standards of both food and drink as serious as everyone else around the world? We did at one time but have since lost our way culturally, we have sold out to the man who purveys the cheap and easy over the valued and cherished. Is that true throughout our fair land? No, and like the apes, what we did best in this country will rise again but on the local rather than the watered down national level. This will save our countries economy as well. Local businesses supporting local customers, we need this.
Smaller and local is better than bigger and ubiquitous, besides, whose accountability is higher?
If we don’t reclaim what was once our national heritage of good food and outstanding drink then we’ll get what we deserve when the apes take over our universities, truck stops, and In Out Burgers, trust me citizens, it will not be the cozy entitled world we’ve been enjoying; besides, you don’t want to be under the unopposable thumb now do you?
Enrico strikes again…
Wow Enrico, I never thought we’d see eye to eye on anything. Bravo!
Sheesh. I’m so freaked out about what is happening in Washington DC at the moment that I can hardly think about issues like littering and HOAs, but must. I pick up litter in our area when we’re not traveling (adopt-a-road stuff) and find almost all of it is beer cans (less expensive beer), pop, juice and water bottles, cig butts, and fast food wrappers. So can’t disagree with you there, except I know lots of people who like Bud and Coors who are environmentally minded and thoughtful folks, so . . . who knows? HOAs are another issue. We live in one that exists for the sole purpose of managing our community well, which serves 40 homes. I alternately wish for more stringent rules (it took us 4 years to evict a meth dealer) and wanting less stringent rules. I don’t know what the answer is, except that a balance between tolerance and respectfulness must exist somewhere. If you can figure it out, please tell us!!!!
Cathryn
I know what you mean about HOAs Cathryn. Our HOA is pretty lax but at the same time they tell us how we can and can’t use our water. Ugh. Ya can’t win, nobody is truly “free” in this country.
It’s a wonderful sentiment and looks good on paper, but I have to agree with Anon at a certain point.
People who started Homeowner’s Associations back in the day probably had very good intentions for keeping their communities clean, safe and amiable.
However, if you look at the chain of dominoes that falls down once an HOA takes hold in a community, you’ll see that it’s led to utter ridiculousness and outright miserable and mean decisions. It’s led to parents being fined for letting their children draw on the sidewalk with chalk and people who are recovering from surgery being taken to task and threatened with a tax lien for the length of their lawn. Both of these are things I witnessed in the last stationary community in which I lived.
And yes, we were told our Airstream was an “eyesore” as it was parked up on the street, legally, within the HOA covenants. The very next resolutuons passed? You guessed it: No RVs or watercraft allowed to park on the circle, which meant, effectivley, anywhere in the neighborhood in which we lived.
Also worth noting, this ban included all work and commercial vehicles, which are oft times the only vehicles a tradesperson (read: plumber, electrician, contractor) has for getting to and from work. So the unspoken message ended up being while it was okay for “those people” to come and WORK in the community, they shouldn’t even think about living there.
Final thought: Those tradespeople can generally be found enjoying a Keystone or Bud with their cigarettes and they may very well enjoy one of each after working all day to repair an RV much like yours or mine. I’ll take to the streets on their behalf.
That said, though, they better not let me catch them littering.
Just my two cents. Thanks for reading.
Charon, thank YOU for reading!
Honestly when I made my own personal connection between cheap beer and littering I didn’t think so much would be read into it by others. I’m not a snob (well OK, a beer snob for sure) and I grew up with a mechanic Dad who drinks Bud and Miller. But can anyone tell me why cheap beer cans are the majority of litter I see on the road? Anyone? Bueller?
Now, don’t get me started on the baby diaper dumping in supermarket parking lots thing. I left that out for fear of militant parental rights folks coming down hard on me. They frighten me.
I do agree about the stupidity of HOAs and their rules. Our summer place is located in one but you can’t get away from it in most of Colorado, HOAs are everywhere, even in the sticks. Ours really only exists to grade roads and that kind of things, the rules are pretty lax and they definitely allow trailers to be parked on properties.
Hey Guys,
This is what you get for moving out of Humboldt County and leaving behind the great brew companies we have here!!
btw, seeing how Amazon no longer allows affiliates for California, I have changed all of my affiliate links to use “liveworkdream-20” 🙂
John
😯 Thanks John! Next time we pass thru the Downtown Brown is on us!
Hi Rene,
For clarification, what I did say was slightly tongue in cheek but with an underlying truth and passion to it. I had a feeling based on your other posts you would take it as something to at least think about rather than get angry about.
I don’t have a blog at the moment, so I have nothing to link to when I leave a comment. I won’t give my email address to any public blog because of the recent security issues and public distribution of logged data by third parties. That leaves me with just posting my name, which makes little sense as it gets lost in all the other same named names out there.
Once I get a blog up, I will probably not even post comments, but rather write a post and link to the blog I am writing about.
Glad I brought some laughter to you with the snark. If I die only being called snarky that would suit me fine. 🙂
And seriously, how can you dislike the cold crisp and refreshing taste of Budweiser/Coors? Sure, the micro brew stuff is good, even the more commercial off brand stuff like Fat Tire is cool. But don’t you find them sort of heavy at times, or all flavored, or mixed with too much fruit, coffee, essence of this or that… Sometimes I just want a classic age old plain jane beer. And yes, I proudly rock the Bud can in public, heck, most public events (concerts, trade shows) only serve low end beer anyway, unless Stella is now hi-end. 🙂
Take Care
More power to ya! Just don’t toss it along the roadside when you’re done. 😉
Anon, you’re funny. We weren’t angry about that, just not sure about your intent.
There are SO many types of microbrews that aren’t heavy. Like the new Shiner Light Blonde or even a Leine’s (Leinenkugel’s). Look for them, they’re just a light and refreshing and they wont give you a headache like the mass-produced stuff.
Can’t wait to see your blog Mr. Snarky, let us know when it goes live.
🙄 Here we go again… it’s not a decent blog post if you don’t piss off somebody! But methinks Mr. Anonymous missed the point. Rene merely stated an observation we have made that you don’t see finer beers and Whole Foods bags discarded along the road. At least we don’t.
As for his “cheap motorhomes” comment, I couldn’t agree more. But just like one’s taste in beer, where do you draw the line? If Anon is implying our rig is cheap, I’d argue that it is clean, green, suits our needs, and doesn’t require a mortgage payment!
PS: Where is Enrico when you need him?
>Personally I think there should be a garbage tax imposed on anyone who buys cheap beer or takeout from crappy fast food joints. Don’t you?
I agree completely. If only those who bought cheap motorhomes had to also pay a tax, I hate how they look compared to my nice 150K Class A. And while we are at it, anyone who does not buy organic, regardless of their income level should have to pay a tax. Don’t even get me started on those who have property and chose not to grow their own food. If you have the land and don’t grow your own food, they should take away your ability to buy produce in order to force you to grow your own.
I assume you can see the sarcasm in my reply. The problem with your line of thinking is that it is an ad hominem/logical fallacy. You seem to have elevated yourself to a level of superiority based on the type of beer you buy and the type of food you buy.
From your perspective, it seems that Budweiser drinkers mean NASCAR going, Republican voting, church going, abortion hating, homophobic, racist people. That is a dangerous way to think.
I love Budweiser, but I also don’t go around thinking that those who spend more on micro brew are pretentious idiots. But even though I like Budweiser, I vote blue, support gay marriage as much as I can even though I feel religion has no place in my government, am pro-choise, not racist etc. And I even can afford whatever beer I want, but just happen to like the stuff.
I have also been known to eat at fast food on occasion, though I try not to make it a habit. Though this has me thinking… If just my drinking “junk beer” and “crap food” is such a tell of the type of person I am, I may as well live up to your stereotype and start tossing the cans and wrappers on the ground. I am already guilty apparently, and may as well be lazy since I have been convicted by virtue of my choices in food and drink preference.
For what it is worth, there is a micro brew connoisseur in our town, really into the stuff. We just learned he is on the sex offenders database. I think all micro-brew drinkers should have to wear a badge to let us know they are not in the database. Don’t you?
Yowza! Touche Mister Anon, your snarky reply gave me quite a laugh, thanks. But if you feel so strongly about your convictions why couldn’t you leave your name? Are you embarrassed to proclaim your loyalty to Bud and Mickey D’s?
Look, sorry if I painted all cheapass beer drinkers with one brush, but these are just my observations that I’ve noticed around here. I do my best not to judge folks, really.