Cart Boy! An Unsung Hero.
I see this guy almost everyday. He’s skinny. Wears blue jeans, a light jacket…kicks on his feet. Sometimes, he has a toque shoved over his hair. His usual posture is a bit shouldered. Almost like his bones felt his embarrassment at being so tall, so they compensated by shrinking into themselves… trying to help him fool the world into thinking he is shorter than he is.
He is always riding his bike with one hand. His other hand is pulling an empty shopping cart. Not the ones abandoned by folks who couldn’t be bothered to take twenty steps back to the cart corral because their weary legs wouldn’t possible carry them any further. Shopping is hard.
These are the carts left, unheeded, to bask in the weather, far away from their home. By folks who don’t have a car and can’t afford a taxi but also need to get some groceries for their families.
He sees these carts. He rescues them. He pulls them alongside his curved frame as his legs stir the pedals of his bike around and around. No bump can stop him. No pothole deters him. No weather keeps him curled up in his bed.
Who is he?
He is Cart Boy!
I imagine a cape whipping in the wind behind him. His chosen head gear rammed down over his ears. His right pant leg rolled up. The headphones covering his ears pumping out ‘The Best of Earth, Wind and Fire.” What? It’s an epic album!
“No cart left behind!”…his battle cry.
I wonder what we would do without him? Would we stand at the empty cart shelter and say with astonishment… “Where are all the carts?” Would we carry a grocery basket in each arm, stuffed full with our wanted items? Would we opt out of milk because… it … plus a carton of non pulp orange juice is just too heavy for our under worked forearms?!
We owe bits of our sanity to Cart Boy. We owe sections of our litter free streets to Cart Boy. We owe some of the ease of choosing a silver chariot and reaching for food with less stress… to Cart Boy!
He is an unsung hero! Sure…he gets paid to bring the carts back! Why shouldn’t he? It’s a thankless job. It’s a job no one else wants to do! It’s a job requiring hours of biking, playing hide and seek and maneuvering the traffic filled streets of our city. All the while riding with one hand and pulling with the other. A talent lost on many.
I see you Cart Boy! I applaud you! You go! Rescue those carts! Bring them home! Soothe our anxiety! Calm our frustrations! Clean up our streets!
I will honk an encouragement! I will thumbs up a thank you! I will sigh and think… “Man…there goes Cart Boy! What a guy!”
Cart Boy.
We need you.
Come rain, sleet, hell or high water…even if we don’t realize it.
