Danette Goulet -- Editors notebook

They think they have hit us where it hurts.

Sanitation workers in 17 cities in Orange County, including Huntington

Beach, have gone on strike refusing to pick up out trash unless they are

given a 75% pay increase rather than the 33% offered.

What will we do? We’ll have to live in refuse. It will pile up and

we’ll be smothered in our own garbage.

Or, we can simply bring it down to the Rainbow Disposal Transfer

Station and dump it -- for free.

Boy, would my dad be tickled.

Imagine, dumping garbage for free. Why, that would be like hitting the

lotto in my family.

Now, I realize we’re all already paying a fee, but seriously, I say

make the best of it.

That’s what my dad did when I was growing up in Massachusetts.

I remember going to the dump with my father and thinking it was the

coolest thing ever.

You see there wasn’t a city or municipal collector, so to have your

garbage collected you had get a private contractor. Well, my dad was too

cheap for that -- as I suppose I would be with six children.

So about once a month or so on Saturdays, we would throw on our oldest

play clothes and help him haul the many bags of trash we’d helped to

create into the back of the station wagon. What other car would a family

of eight have?

How many of us got to go, depended on how much trash we had. So as

many as would fit piled in and off we went. We’d squeal, moan and groan

about the smell -- rolling down our windows. My dad would just chuckle

and say, “you didn’t have to come along.”

But we loved it. I have no idea why, but we just thought it was the

greatest. I remember looking out over the vast mounds of dirt and garbage

-- the place was huge -- and thinking how neat it looked.

When Dad was done tossing the bags in the appropriate spot we’d leave.

A chore for him, was made amusing by his undoubtedly weird children, and

for us it was some great treat and adventure.

Maybe we loved it because it was something to do with Dad. Who knows?

The point is, it’s not such a big deal, just make the best of it.

* DANETTE GOULET is the assistant city editor. She can be reached at

(714) 965-7170 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .