There are not many things that would get me up so early on a Saturday morning, but there I was watching the sun rise from East Beach. I must admit that I spent the last two Earth Day Celebrations sacked out for most of the day after a night of heavy consumption. But just the thought of catching a glimpse of Madeline Hannah Waller giving a speech on the local environmental efforts was certainly worth getting up early for.
In my college days, I was very involved in environmental issues, actually met my first ex-wife at a rally at the college. She was majoring in law, specializing in environmental law. We both read Ms. Waller's books, stood in line to get her autograph and later, as my wife graduated, we worked together with her as activists in her 'Beachfront Now' campaigns.
I thoroughly enjoyed working for Ms. Waller, but after a number of years I found the pay levels for activists weren't enough to raise a family, so I started looking for a job in my field while my wife continued with Ms. Waller. I guess it was ironic that I landed a job with a major oil company, but I was able to smooth things over with my wife and her employer because my job was to work toward improving the safety and environmental concerns of the company. At least that's what I believed.
On March 24th, 1989 after a productive time in the industry, I learned that I was just a company pawn after all. On that day I suddenly learned I was assigned to "damage control" with the environmentalists for an incident with one of my company's tankers. The name of that tanker was the Exxon Valdez and I was the one wearing the Exxon hat trying to soothe a lynch mob. My wife was first in line with the mob and within the week I was out the door. I lasted only a few weeks later with Exxon because I seemed to have difficulty rationalizing the accident to the satisfaction of the company.
Okay, okay, that was a number of years ago and I went on to acquire ex-wives number two and three while working in a number of different positions, mostly for companies with environmental problems. Mind you, each time I was to work to help clean up the companies, but I proved to be almost as successful at work as I was at home. So now, here I am, between wives and between real jobs. Yeah, schlepping beer and burgers to a bunch of kids half my age is not what I'd call a real job. It pays just enough for my occasional bouts of overconsumption.
Ah, but this morning I am sober, clearheaded and enthusiastic to take part in the Earth Day festivities, which, I am proud to say, includes a massive cleanup effort along the shores of the gulf and the waterway. I even have my Earth Day + 3 tee shirt, that means April 22 plus three days for the cleanup.
Now, enough about me because just as the sun peeked over the nearby bait shop, Madeline Hannah Waller stepped up onto the stage, tapped the microphone a couple of times and then took a deep breath, "Welcome to the 29th Annual Earth Day celebration here at Crystal Beach and the 35th Annual Beachfront Now Cleanups. Yes, six full years before we finally got the country on the ball, we were here every year cleaning up the beaches and all over the news the rest of the year trying to raise consciousness about pollution, air quality and our environment.
"Yes, for six years before "Earth Day," before the political speeches, celebrations, hell, six years before these fancy tee shirts, we worked hard to cleanup. Funny thing, back in 1970, when we had our first Earth Day celebration, it seems that the date happened to coincide with the 100th birthday of Vladimir Lenin so I think we had more FBI and CIA agents in the crowd than environmentalist. Gladly, they have joined our ranks, and now, along with millions of other concerned citizens, they show up each year for the cleanups.
"Of course Earth Day is just one day, it's a celebration for sure, but I see it as more of an opportunity, an opportunity to show each and every person that they can make a difference. By picking up some trash today, they might think twice about throwing something out a window, by lugging some tires now, they might consider recycling in the future.
"Now there are a lot of people I need to thank for helping in today's affair and I'd like to start out with my advisor and council..."
With that, I ducked my head and began humming to myself as Ms. Waller introduced my first ex-wife. She continued with the speech introducing other important officials and volunteers for this year's celebration, but I heard what I needed to. Like always, her speech was short, to the point and sweet. In fact, like always, Ms. Waller was a short and very sweet woman.
Her hair went from a dark black to that beautiful silver gray that adorn the most beautiful of older women, and while she wasn't as lithe and sleek as back in the early days I worked with her, she still was an incredibly sensuous woman. I say sensuous because it seems so much more dignified that sexy, more appropriate somehow.
I don't know, perhaps my view of her now is slanted, slanted by how much I had wanted her back in the days I was married to my first wife, back in the days she was married to a man who went on to become a Senator, but she still is one of the most beautiful women I have ever known. Hell, she's old enough to be my mother, but I feel more drawn to her than I ever was to any of my ex-wives. I wonder if that might be why... Ah, no, it can't be.
The speech wound down and I began heading down to the beachfront, glancing back occasionally to see if Ms. Waller's entourage was heading out too. One thing about Maddy Waller, she wasn't just a figurehead for the movement, she got out and worked each and every year. I would have tried to work my way closer to her, but I was sure ex-wife # 1 was in the entourage so I kept my distance.
I really didn't expect the work at the beach and along the waterway to be as tough as it was, but as we worked back into the dunes and along the roadways we kept finding all kinds of trash. By early afternoon we had a number of piles that would take eighteen wheelers to haul. Most of the workers were pretty much finished for the day, all they needed were for the trucks to arrive and the loaders to move the trash into the trucks.
I slipped into a nearby restaurant, washed up a bit and then headed out to the water to rinse off a bit more. It was a bit chilly that early in the season, but it was invigorating. As I came out of the water I noticed a person walking down the beach, it wasn't until she got a lot closer that I could see it was Ms. Waller.
I gave her a quick wave and waited for her to walk past, when she turned and walked over to me.
"Martin, is that you?"
"Yes, I wasn't sure you would remember me."
"Oh Martin, how could I forget you. You know, I thought I saw you in the crowd this morning. It's so nice to see you."
"It's nice to see you again Ms...."
"Martin, it's Maddy, you know that."
"It's nice to see you again Maddy. You are looking good."
"You mean I'm looking good for an old woman."
"No Maddy, believe me, you are looking good, wonderful in fact."
"Well, I survived another Earth Day, hard to imagine, next year will be the thirtieth."
"That's a lot of trash cleaned up."
"And how many people did we get involved over the years."
"Judging by today's crowd, there's been a lot. But what are you doing now?" I asked.
"Well, at the end of each of these celebrations and cleanups, I like to take a quiet walk along the beach and just take a look. There's a spot just up in the dunes I go. It overlooks this portion of the island and I watch them load up the trucks as the sun goes down. Later, as it starts getting dark I watch the campfires light up along the beach, one by one."
"That sounds nice."
"Want to join me?"