Sunday, July 2, 2000

Couple bugged by litter sets a good example

Stay in Corpus Christi long enough and you'll find out in short order that neighborhood litter is as talked about as, oh, say, the tax base.
   Such topics are hardly the meat of casual conversations, rather fodder for impassioned dialogue.
   But it's one thing to decry trashy neighborhoods, quite another to actually do something about the Styrofoam cups, aluminum cans, sticky candy wrappers and cigarette butts that tumble with the wind until finally finding a welcome mat in patches of overgrown weeds.
   Take Howard and Dolly Findley. If prize money were given out annually to those who pick up the most after litterbugs, this couple would save enough in the cookie jar to hang ten for awhile on the beaches of Hawaii.
   For the past 17 years, the Findleys have been keepers of the Hamlin Addition, that is, picking up debris that would otherwise pile up on curb gutters, empty lots and neighboring Sherwood Park.
   It all started in 1983, the year Howard, a dentist, and his wife, Dolly, Howard's general office manager, retired. No longer thwarted by work schedules, the pair took up walking for physical fitness.
   At first, they restricted their cleanup to the park where their two children, now grown and gone, once spent so many hours on the jungle gym and swings. But when the Findleys extended their walking distance to Hamlin Center and Parkdale Plaza, so did the bagging of trash.
   In the winter, the Findleys head outdoors at 8 a.m.; summertime walks begin an hour earlier. Each takes a couple of garbage bags, Howard preferring to tie one to a pole he slings over his shoulder.
   "We don't miss much," Dolly said, "except when we're out of town, the weather is bad or we're sick."
   The Findleys collect shoes, clothing, electric fans - the usual garage-sale items that don't sell and owners toss to the curb - and redirect them to those who can use them such as Metro Ministries and Good Samaritan. So far this year, the Findleys also have found loose change and bills totaling $22.41.
   "That's not getting rich," Dolly mused. "We just put it in the pot."
   Squirreling away their finds is good enough for the pocket change, says longtime neighborhood resident Avis Dorough. But keeping a lid on this environment-conscious couple's example isn't.
   They deserve some talking up, Dorough says. "I know our neighborhood wouldn't be the same without them. All of us should be cleaning up and encouraging others not to trash our streets."
  
 

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