One man’s garbage truck is another child’s plaything.
Tom Harrington, a local garbage man, makes a special stop when completing his garbage route – one at local daycares.
“I heard other people at the city had kids coming out to hit the button,” Harrington said.
He ran with the idea.
“They just love it,” he said.
“It’s just cool.”
“They’re so excited every day there’s a garbage day,” Marilyn Long, owner and operator of Marilyn Long’s Family Daycare where Harrington stops.
“At first some of them were shy,” she said.
“[Now] they basically have their nose to the gate.”
“He stops every week he’s working,” Long said.
“He tosses the bag, and they push a button, and they all get a turn,” she said. “Then he honks the horn a few times.”
It’s one of his usual stops.
“Marilyn opens up the gate and they all jump up and wave,” said Harrington.
Long said the boys especially enjoy Harrington’s visits.
“Because it’s a big truck – they’re really excited to see big trucks,” she said.
The kids even recognize him outside of daycare.
“When we go for walks and we see the garbage man, they get really excited,” Long said.
Harrington doesn’t just do it for the kids, he likes it.
“It just makes my day to have a little break and to see all the kids,” he said.
Harrington’s three-year-old son, Cooper, is one of the kids excited to see the garbage man as he goes to the daycare.
“He just loves it when the garbage man comes,” he said.
Cooper takes after his father.
“I know I loved the garbage man when I was a kid.”
Long appreciates Harrington’s presence at the daycare.
“As a parent when he picks his son up [from daycare], he plays with them all,” she said.
“It’s nothing to see him dragging the wagon with a bunch of kids.”
The kids may not be happy when the garbage truck drives away, but Harrington’s route will bring him back to the daycare.
