Another Fabulous Dutch Bicycle, plus A Few Comments on Littering

I couldn’t stop looking at it. The picture doesn’t do it justice. As I stood admiring it, I tried to guess its vintage, but then the owner emerged and told me I was two decades off. He said 70s. He should know, I guess, it’s his bike. Like Rianne of the the Cargo Bike, he brought it over from Holland, where he lived for eight years. Eventually I will find the scrap of paper where I wrote the name of the bike, and post it here.

See that paper Coke cup lying there in the photo? I debated about whether to include this picture for that reason. But you know me, I don’t like to misrepresent the truth. Much as I would rather represent my city as a pristine haven of stellar citizenship where no one litters and everyone rides a bike, the truth in this case is the following: There lies a paper Coke cup, placed there deliberately by an actual litterer, probably a resident of Portland.

I hate it when people litter. Ordinarily I don’t believe in capital punishment, but when it comes to littering I start to seriously waver on my position. That may seem harsh, but it’s because I don’t have any reason to believe that litterers can be rehabilitated. I have known and observed a number of them in my lifetime. Once a person has grown into an adult litterbug, that’s it.

Alright, in some cases I might be talked into life imprisonment. There’s a need for job opportunities in prisons, and other inmates could have jobs picking up their litter – which is what the rest of us spend our lives doing (or paying for) when the litterbugs are at large.

I have more to say on that topic. Littering and bicycling are directly related because as a cyclist, one becomes acutely aware of every speck of litter. So I’ll continue this thread, but I have to go make a living now. Goodbye.