Tuesday, December 29, 2009

"Christmas Beer"

A longstanding Hawaiian tradition, I’ve been told, was for customers to leave cases of beer at the curb, as a Christmas present for their trash collectors. It turned out, however, this well-intentioned gesture was illegal. Regulations state that government vehicles are not permitted to carry alcohol.

Being a resourceful bunch, the Hawaiians adjusted their tradition. On the last collection day before Christmas, the trash collectors recruited their buddies to drive behind them, and gather up the gifts their customers had left for them in their private vehicles. Sometimes, however, their vehicles were too small to accommodate it all, and the buddies were required to down a few bottles, before loading the rest up.

This could lead to some dangerous driving, but at least the beer wasn’t anywhere near the trash.

2 comments:

kenblco68 said...

Very funny! BTW, I found your blog because I just got 18 episodes of "Best of the West" on DVD as a Christmas present. I did a Google search to see if they were available on DVD officially yet, and found your blog. Thanks for the reminisces on the show. It seems like all my favorite TV shows either came close to being cancelled before they found an audience, or got the axe way too early. Thanks again for a great series. And if you ever decide to take the tapes in your garage and sell DVDs of the episodes, please let me know! - Ken

Max Clarke said...

A noble Christmas tradition, the beer curb pickup. They can curb their carbs later.