pride and big tips

So, there is this free buffet at the dive bar I go to, every weekday from four to seven which is greatly convenient because I get off of work at four.

So, anyway, I'll really don't go up but my friend always does. He bring back enough to share but I'll rarely take anything.

I'll rarely take anything 'cause my family was poor.

Hand-me-downs, government cheese, WIC…

I've never had it bad but there were times it wasn't good. I was five when I was fishing Boston Harbor, not for fun but for food. We picked blueberries in the Blue Hills for the same reason.

I collected cans before there was a five cent deposit.

"Aluminum cans don't have seams."

"Aluminum cans don’t rust."

We found some seamless cans that had rust. My father in his desire to make a dime collected rusty 'aluminum' seamless cans. The scrap metal guy wouldn't take any rusty aluminum.

I don't remember how many Saturdays we wasted picking through trash cans. I remember one day when we cashed our hard earned cans in, we got twenty two bucks. My dad brought fresh fruit with the money from some pushcart vendor.

I remember wondering how much we just got hosed.

I drive a truck. Whenever I have a can of soda or something, I'll toss it in the back of my truck. It never lasts more than two days before someone takes it.

http://arustycan.blogspot.com/