Chapter Nine: Inspiration from the Old Can
I carried the old coffee can to school with me Wednesday morning.
“What are you still doing with that old can?” Autumn asked.
“I’m going to use it for my Social Studies project,” I said.
“How?” Autumn questioned.
I didn’t answer, but just smiled. I didn’t want to give away any details of my project. I thought that I had a great idea for my presentation and I wanted it to be a surprise to the whole class.
“Stop laughing at me!” Autumn shouted.
“I’m not laughing at you,” I said.
Although I was being honest, it was hard to keep from laughing at her. She was wearing her sombrero on the walk to school. The felt sombrero was red with golden designs glittered all over it. It looked pretty cool, but it swallowed her head when she wore it.
“I wonder where Suzy went,” I said to quickly change the subject.
Suzy hadn’t followed us all the way to school the whole week. He began each morning by following us about a half a block, but he began disappearing somewhere around Mrs. Barnes’s house. He has been known to wander off during our morning walks before. Sometimes he’ll pick up a scent of something he’s buried in the neighborhood along the way and follows it until he finds it. He usually catches up with us before we get to school, or he’ll meet us at recess. Instead of meeting us at school later in the day, he had met me every day this week when I got home from school. I could hear the sound of his tail thumping against the front porch as soon as I reached the edge of our driveway each day. By the time I would reach the edge of the porch, he would nearly tackle me and lick at my face like it was a baby bottle pop.
“Maybe he knows that you’ll get in trouble if he shows up at school again,” said Autumn.
I hoped that she was right. I sure didn’t want Mr. Brady to call my dad. I don’t know if he’d really give him back to Ben or not, but I didn’t want to find out.
“Maybe he does know,” I said. “He’s pretty smart, but he’s also mischievous. He’s found something to get into. I guarantee it. I just hope he isn’t getting into something that’s going to cause even more trouble. I sure don’t need any complaints about him from the neighbors. Dad would give him back to Ben for sure then.”
“Does he know about the trouble at school,” she asked.
“No, but I’ve got to figure something out quick if I want to keep him from finding out,” I replied. “It’ll be my luck that Suzy will pick Friday to start following us all the way to school again.”
We discussed a few ways to keep Suzy at home, but couldn’t decide on a way that would work. We were fresh out of ideas when we reached the school doorsteps. We reached our noisy classroom within a few minutes. Everyone was excited about the Social Studies presentations.
As soon as the National Anthem had finished playing, Mrs. Crocker began calling on students to present what they had learned about different cultures and countries. Reggie Hicks began first. He had a small figure of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. He explained that the tower was built in 1889 to commemorate the French Revolution and that it was the tallest building in the world until 1930. He also informed us that the French 4th of July is known as Bastille Day and that it is celebrated on July 14th instead of July 4th.
Betty Stewart was next. She showed some pictures her aunt had taken from a visit to Venice, Italy. The pictures must have been taken after a really bad hurricane or something. All of the streets looked like they were flooded.
Still wearing the gigantic sombrero, Autumn told the class about some of the things she saw on her vacation in Cancun. She let everyone in the class take turns trying the sombrero on as she discussed the origins of the hat.
“The word sombrero is derived from the Spanish word for shade, sombre,” Autumn informed the class. “It was created by Mexican farmers seeking shelter from the sun in the deserts that they worked in. The original sombreros were made of straw. As the popularity of the hat grew, they were made out of felt and sequins. The type of sombrero a person wore signified their place in society.”
Sheila Butler began her presentation as the class continued to pass Autumn’s sombrero around the room. She showed some pictures of her grandparent’s trip to London, England. In one of the pictures, her grandmother was posing by a guard at the gates of Buckingham Palace. The guard was wearing a hat that looked like a giant caterpillar on his head. Sheila said that her grandmother told her that the guards are like statues; they don’t move at all.
“You could jump up and down and act like a fool in front of them if you wanted, but they won’t even bat an eye,” she said. “My grandfather tried telling him a few jokes to see if he would at least crack a smile, but it didn’t work. He said that he still wasn’t sure if it was a real person or not. Grandma said that she saw him breathing, though.”
“I bet he’d smile if Autumn walked in front of him with that sombrero on her head,” Larry Morgan joked.
After several other of my classmates presented what they had learned, Mrs. Crocker finally called upon me. I could see Autumn shaking her head in disbelief as I brought the old, rusty can with me to the front of the class. Everyone else just stared at the can curiously.
I began by explaining how Autumn and I found the tin can during our excavation for treasure in the field behind my house. I then told the class about the guy who threw his snow cone out the window.
“Many people who litter do not realize the consequences of their actions. Some products like styrofoam cups and certain types of plastics never go away. Cigarette butts thrown out of car windows can hang around the landscape for up to 10 years. They can smolder on the roadside for up to three hours. A fire is started somewhere around the world every 12 minutes a due to littering. Many sea animals are killed because they mistake styrofoam and plastic litter for food. Styrofoam can clog a sea turtle’s digestive system causing it to starve to death,” I read from my notes.
If I sounded pretty smart, it’s because I researched the effects of litter on the internet. My dad said that they didn’t have the internet when he was a kid. They had to use real books. He said that an encyclopedia set consisted of about 25 thick books. Because they were expensive to own, many families didn’t have a set. He had to do his research during school or at the public library. I sure am glad someone invented the internet. I’m not sure, but I heard that some guy named Al Gore invented it.
“This can is over 50 years old,” I continued. “My dad said that people in the old days used to burn or bury their garbage. He said that people back then weren’t as aware of the effects of littering as we are today. I guess that’s probably why I’ve found so many cans with my metal detector. If we examine this can more thoroughly, we can probably learn a lot about the culture of people from Bradford in 1960.
“It looks like they were a bunch of litterbugs who drank a lot of coffee,” joked Scotty Riggs.
“We have learned that they weren’t efficient at managing waste,” Mrs. Crocker added. “What else have you learned about their culture?”
“I’ve learned that things change. We now have garbage men that pick up our trash once a week,” I said.
“Anything else?” she asked.
“Everything has changed,” I added. “Fashion, music, and television.”
My dad laughed at me when I asked him who the Beatles were. He said that my kids would probably ask me who Miley Cyrus is. I told him that he was crazy. Everyone knows who Miley Cyrus is.
He also told me that they didn’t have a remote control for the TV when he was growing up. He said that he had to get up and turn a knob every time he wanted to change the channel. Whoever invented the remote control must have made a fortune. I can’t wait until I become a scientist. Hopefully, I can invent something like the internet or the remote control that’ll make me rich.
“Since metal containers like this old can seem like they’ll last forever underground, we can use something lik
e it to make a time capsule. We can put pictures, newspaper clippings, or anything we want in it and bury it. People in the future can learn about our culture when they dig it up,” I said.
“That’s a great idea,” Mrs. Crocker said. “We have a document safe in the office that Mr. Brady will probably let us use. Class, I want everyone to bring something Friday for a time capsule. If you bring pictures, be sure to write your name on the back of them. You can also write a short biography of yourself listing your hobbies and interests. Bring anything that you think reflects life in 2014 Bradford.”
We spent the rest of the class period discussing what we would bring for the time capsule. Some people had already begun working on their biographies. I wasn’t sure yet what I would bring. I was just happy that Mrs. Crocker had seemed to like my presentation. Since everyone else had pictures of other countries and Autumn had her sombrero, I was a little worried when I began talking about the old can. Mrs. Crocker said that my speech about litter was very informative and that the idea for a time capsule would be a great class project.
I’m going to take the can home and put it back on my bedroom shelf. I guess I could consider it as my first important discovery of our expedition. It might not be worth anything, but it did help me get an “A” for my Social Studies project.