I had the grandkids on a long walk beside our local creekbed. I have enough grandkids to crew a big sloop, so it was a big group.
We were on a trail surrounded by lush new growth and vibrant wildflowers. I thoroughly enjoyed the permeating smells of nature, the sights of wild growth, and a strange crinkling sound. Wait … crinkling sound?
I spun around to take a closer look at the two kids. Sure enough, I knew that sound well … candy wrappers. I’m a bit of a chocoholic myself, but not on the trail. All right, for the sake of full disclosure, I’m a big-time chocoholic. I confess. But still, not on the trail.
A survey of the trail behind us showed evidence of their mistreatment of nature. A candy wrapper lay about 30 feet behind us. I could see another one about 50 feet behind the first.
The trail took a bend beyond that, but I felt relatively certain even more candy wrappers were strung out along the trail, revealing that a mouthful of sweet stuff had far more to do with their quiet behavior than the stunning beauty of nature around us. Sigh!
There is a time for enjoying nature and a time for teaching kids a valuable lesson. So, we stopped to have a chat about the evils of junking up nature.
As a sea captain, I know Ma Nature has a way of evening up the score when we put too much trash and pollutants on the ground. Sooner or later, she will wash it all out to sea, and then back on our beaches.
One of those candy wrappers could get sucked into a cooling water intake on one of my boat engines if it didn’t gag some poor critter first. Oops, pardon me, I’m lecturing again. Back to the story.
After the lecture to the grandkids (you’ve read much of it), we retraced our steps — the entire walk and picked up every bit of trash. While diligently looking for our candy wrappers, we noticed plenty of other folks’ trash. My grandkids didn’t feel much like cleaning up after others, but we talked about that, too.
There was one discarded plastic package that had ants all over it. My grandkids wanted nothing to do with that one, but I convinced them that we needed to get those ants off their junk food diet. Hey – whatever works. Once past that hurdle, they seemed happier with picking up trash from every littering hooligan to walk that trail.
We came home with pockets and fists full of trash and deposited them in our trash can with great fanfare. Then we washed our hands thoroughly.
When we drive by that area now, the kids often look toward the creekbed and talk proudly about cleaning it up. Their pride does me proud.
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
