Wouldn’t you know it? Just when I thought that my weather-forecasting mole was right about winter, spring happened! And while I am savoring the victories of the past hunting season, my dog quit hiding behind the tree and became a hardworking bird dog, I sometimes find myself puttering around humming the theme song from the television show “Green Acres”:

“Land spreading out so far and wide …”

My land isn’t far and wide, but it is kind of spread out. I’ve already “giddyupped” Old Red, my garden tiller, a couple of times, turning lime and fertilizer into the soil, although I almost called it quits after a failed attempt to have a nice garden last year. But the deep feeling for the sense of freedom and relaxation that it gives me won out, so here I go again.

“Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside …”

This area is, thank goodness, a far cry from Manhattan, although its speedy growth rate sometimes encroaches upon my sense of solitude and a slower lifestyle that I enjoy.

And “Green Acres” sings about farm living. Well, this isn’t a farm, unless you describe a farm as a fair-sized back yard with some leased land that is large enough for gardening and having a few fruit trees. But it involves a lot of the outdoors on two sides – river and woods – and presents opportunities to observe wildlife of all kinds, plus other pleasures that Mother Nature provides.

I recently talked with someone who poured out his feelings about the outdoors and the conservation and preservation of it, and we decided that we both enjoy cold mornings when the frost sparkles like diamonds. And we could have discussed the highs of golden sunrises and red and purple sunsets, but we didn’t need to. We both knew they were pulsing just under the surface, inside the other.

However, there is an ugly spot in the outdoor panorama of life on the Stancil homestead-trash. While three sides of the place stay pretty clean, the fourth side meets U.S. 301 and a steady stream of folks strewing trash of all kinds-bags, boxes, cups, bottles, clothing, garbage and other things along the highway. Those items desecrate the view, and bags and cups are blown by the wind until they wind up in our yards and in the river.

Maybe we could borrow from Jeff Foxworthy’s act and create a “You May Be a Dummy If … ” attitude. For instance:

You may be a dummy if … you throw trash out of your vehicle instead of cleaning out your vehicle at home.

We could include folks who set beer bottles up in the streets and highways at intersections and folks who leave empty bait containers and other trash on the banks of the river and in the water.

We could include people who leave shopping carts in parking spaces instead of cart racks and those who dump small animals out instead of taking care of them in other ways, but then we might hit upon some of mine and your careless lapses of thought, and we don’t want to do that, do we?

I was told at least twice that our area lost a manufacturer some time ago because we had so much litter that the company thought that it reflected badly on the attitude and cleanliness habits of our people. If that is true, then we brought it on ourselves.

If it is not true, then we have contributed to rumor because we are careless with our trash and garbage. It seems that laziness has crept in and shoved pride out of the way.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep collecting the blown trash as it comes by, and me and Old Red will keep plowing the garden. Not only is it relaxing, but it lets me go back to yesterdays when hand plows and mules fashioned the rows. But that’s only a beginning.

From there, the mind branches out to remember wash pots, lye soap and old oaken buckets-and a time when it was a shame to trash your community.

It will be a shame, also, if this garden fails, so I will concentrate on tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, squash and other things … after all of the trash is picked up.

Bill Stancil is a freelance writer and former staff member of the Rocky Mount Telegram.

source : www.rockymounttelegram.com