The Can Man
I work in a major U.S. factory.
We make refrigerators.
Four thousand five hundred new refrigerators every day.
It is a union shop and it's gradually shrinking
as many blue collar factories seem to be but
that is not what this story is about.
This story is about one man who works in this huge factory.
I've seen him around for years but never paid much attention.
He always seemed just a little odd.
A little short. A little... scruffy.
Always the same old red ball cap.
And always a garbage bag in one hand.
He walks around this big old factory on his breaks
and his lunch time collecting aluminum cans.
Day after day, month after month on hot days and cold days.
Over the years I've followed him
as he walked to his old pickup truck on the coldest day
with snow blowing and everyone with their collars
turned up and their hands in their pockets.
He would be there with a 40 gallon garbage bag
full of aluminum cans. He'd toss it into the back of his truck
and jump in and I'd reach my car and jump in
and we'd all race to the exit of this big half empty parking lot.
Today I was working on a broken machine in this factory
and the can man came by with his bag picking up cans.
Our manager was standing there because the machine
I was working on had been “down” for a couple of hours
and he was getting worried
that we might run out out of the parts for one of the assembly lines.
I was finishing and I stood up just as
the manager asked the can man what he did with all those cans.
I'd never thought to ask him that question
because I always just assumed he cashed them
in at the recycle center.
The can man said:“I give them to my neighbor.
He's epileptic and can't hold a job.”
I blurted out:“your mean you've been collecting all those cans
for all these years to give to your neighbor?”
“It ain't much,” he said, “but I give them to him.
He can't hold a job, he has too many seizures.”
Right then and there in that factory
I found myself looking smack at the face of him.
He was wearing a T-shirt and an old red ball cap
and he had a garbage bag full of aluminum cans in his hand!
I don't even know his name,
but I thank him for the lesson he's taught me.