Flashback Friday -- Taking out the trash

In his younger days, my brother, Jeremy, was notorious for forgetting to pay attention. I think he's mostly outgrown that trait (correct me if I'm wrong, Jeremy). But back then, he would absentmindedly do things like throw perfectly good items in the garbage without paying attention.

One time, he threw an entire 5-gallon bucket of my dad's tools away. Dad was so mad, Jeremy was so in trouble, and I, well, I was just so amused by the whole thing.



Time: Summer of 1997
Place: Jeremy & Shawna's apartment, Tennessee

My sister, Lisa, and I had been staying with my oldest brother, Shane, and his wife for about a week. Li and I decided it was time to move on to our next destination, which was Jeremy & Shawna's apartment, so we loaded the car and drove about 6 or so hours to their place. It was pretty late when we arrived at J & S's, so we quickly unloaded the car, dumped our stuff in the living room right next to the door, and went to bed.

The next morning, Jeremy got up early to head to work. Li, Shawna, and I took our sweet time getting around for the day since we didn't have much planned besides doing laundry. Li and I each only had about one clean outfit left in our suitcases, so after breakfast we tracked down some quarters and got organized to go to the laundromat.

I had forgotten to pack a laundry bag, so I had put all my dirty clothes into a white trashbag that was sitting by the rest of my stuff. Only, when I went to get my trashbag of clothes, it wasn't there!

Shawna, Li, and I scoured the apartment and the car for my clothes, only to come up empty handed. We just couldn't imagine what could have happened to them. I called Shane to see if maybe I left them at his house... nope.

Finally, Shawna called Jeremy. It was trash day that day and he had hauled all the trash out to the dumpster that morning. He didn't realize that the trash he had taken out was actually MY CLOTHES!

I. WAS. SO. MAD! I quickly ran out to the dumpster to find that it had already been emptied (that's what I get for getting up late and piddling around). My clothes were GONE!

Of course, Jeremy felt bad and I knew he hadn't done this on purpose so I cooled off pretty quickly. He was just trying to be a nice husband and take out the trash. Sometimes guys really can't win for losing *grin*.

I'll tell you this, I sure didn't think Jeremy's habit of throwing non-trash in the garbage was so funny anymore.

*Edited to Add* -- I forgot to say that Jeremy, being the good brother he is, did take me shopping to replace the clothing. He even carried my unmentionables around the store for me :-).