A week or so ago a woman wrote to the Lakeville Journal about picking up empty beer cans along the road in the Salisbury area.

I was going to write a nifty letter to the editor about that saying that since the drinker/driver was disobeying the law by having an open container of liquor in his car, he probably wouldn’t care if broke another law about littering.

Then I heard on WTIC that CT doesn’t have a law against having an open container of liquor in your car while driving! The legislature is attempting to pass it again at this moment. Apparently it’s tried several times, but the law never gets passed. (I think it has gotten out of the Senate committee, but has to go to the House.)

I think that having such a law might help, but the problem is getting it enforced. A fine of $90 for first offense and $500 for each after isn’t probably going to worry these folks. And they have to be caught which isn’t likely.

I don’t believe we can make people be neat and tidy. Having a small garbage bag in their car is too hard for them to grasp.

Another alternative is having the beer cans self destruct when empty and/or exposed to sunlight for a period of time. Technology should be able to come up with something!

Just problems of a different sort, I guess. Someone in your area can move to less expensive parts of the state, with better jobs closer by, kids rampant, and employ service people. But you have to fight traffic on the way to the office, crime in your neighborhood, and absorb noise and pollution as go about a regular day. Why dont you run your vacuum, mow your own grass and enjoy the view!

Ned

Thanks for your comment.

Our problems aren’t strip malls or overdevelopment, but the emerging disappearance of the middle class and the resulting disappearance of children in our community. The families are mostly being replaced by part-time residents. Click here for some info on that.

Our school-age populations are shrinking rapidly because of the lack of affordable housing. Sure the cost of living isn’t as high as where you live in Fairfield County, but there are few jobs here that pay well either, so it’s just as much of a struggle.

So while we don’t have your kind of traffic or sprawl, there is considerable concern here that we are heading toward what the wealthy in the Hamptons face: where are you going find someone to clean your house or cut your grass if the workers can’t find a place to live?

I’m not a native New Englander. I have lived here 40 years, but don’t feel like it’s home. I grew up in the Midwest and before I came to NWCT the longest time I’d lived in one place after high school was Denver. The four years I spent there may be best years of my life. I’ve spent some time in most parts of the US except the Pacific Northwest.

As I wrote in one comment, I like watching people, but guess I should keep my thoughts to myself!

As for all the rather mean-spirited comments about the “tourists” and “New Yorkers,” well, thank goodness they come, pay taxes, spend money, stimulate culture and good dining, and add much more than one may realize at first. Even though not one of them, I enjoy having them around very much. Of course, when I go to “the city” they can pick me out of the crowd instantly, no matter how hard I try to look like them. Thankfully, however, they have always been too polite (or too busy) ever to laugh at me.

A few years ago, I was driving east on Route 44 thru downtown Canaan. A car pulled out in front of me from the railroad depot parking lot and I followed it slowly. At the intersection with Route 7, the woman driver opened her door and tossed a strawberry ice cream cone on the ground under her car as the light turned green and she drove off. From the decals on the car, I assumed she was from a small town near Hartford.

At the time I wrote about the littering visitor and it was printed in the Journal. It was only an example of life in the country!