Bottle Deposit

When I was a child my family would often go to spend a few days by the water in Malibu. My dad would hitch up the 16 foot camping trailer to our Ford station wagon. (yes, the same one that I once released the parking brake on and consequently rolled across the street up onto the neighbors lawn. All my dad said was, "don't do that again." I was seven. I guess the lesson stayed with me because I've not done it since). Anyway, we go off into the sunset on a Friday evening and wake up on the beach for the weekend or sometimes for a couple of weeks when it was vacation time. I would get up really early with the sun and wanted to be off doing stuff when every one else wanted to sleep, so my dad suggested that I go along the shore and retrieve the bottles scattered from the day before by the idiots of that time and cash them in. I took to this idea with a vengeance and when I made ten bucks the very first day I was hooked. My summer mornings were filled with the clank of all sorts of bottles each of which had a deposit on them between a nickel and twenty cents. I was happy because I was making money. At the same time I was performing a service by keeping the beach clear of bottles. It was a good deal all around with perhaps the exception of one person - the old wino who lost out to me each day because I was up a hell of a lot earlier than him. I'm sure that for the times I spent on the beaches of Malibu his times of sobriety were of equal measure. It looks like New Jersey is about to take a step toward a cleaner world. Good times...