Who Cleans Up After Crowds are Gone?

To the Editor:

The October Round Top Antique Festival was well attended by both dealers and shoppers, giving a much-needed boost to local businesses. Some dealers said that this was one of their best shows. But then it was time to clean up. A big thank you to the group of 16, mostly women in their 60s, 70s and even 80s, who donned orange vests last week and braved dangerous 18-wheelers and other highspeed traffic on Highway 237. They picked up 39 large trash bags of beer cans, ice bags, feed sacks, grocery bags, food wrappers, surgical masks, gloves, and thousands of pieces of Styrofoam cups shredded by the mowers.

In the past, one of our volunteers had a plastic water bottle thrown at her by a gravel truck driver. In addition, there was furniture, wire, garbage cans, tire treads, and vendor signs.

It would have been nice to see more local business and venue owners, who have most benefited financially from the antique festival, helping with the trash pickup. But many venue owners are absentee owners, so I wonder how much they really care about how their place looks between antique shows. Frankly, there is just a lot of trash along many of our State highways. Now some Texas celebs are teaming up with TxDOT for a new “Don’t Mess With Texas” advertising campaign. We have all seen a few signs reminding everyone of the fines for littering. That’s great. But are there any teeth in these anti-littering laws? Maybe if a few state and local officials would themselves adopt a stretch of highway, the trash problem would come into clearer focus.

In the meantime, this 60-something year old will continue to join the other Friends of Hwy 237 and the Chamber of Commerce, in cleaning up the disgusting trash left behind in Round Top, Texas.

Deborah Kainer

Round Top