How the big green bucket got it's name, I may never know, but it is a serious job and just as important. I was first aquainted with this special duty during parade clean-up. The supervisors have very few guys willing to do it and when they were not around to fill the position, I was called to fill in. I was around horses back home and even spent a few years in 4-H, so I didn't think it was a big deal. The big deal came when I had to dress up like a footman to Cinderella's carriage. I showed up on time at the car-barn (place on Main St. where the trolleys are kept) in my pink costume to have pantyhose pulled over my head and a white wig pinned on. All my buddies had grins on their faces and ribbed me in good nature. At least I won't be recognized by the public in this get-up. No one knows who I am and would soon forget there was a poor sap sweeping behind the horses.

I successfully walked the whole parade route behind the carriage, sweeping manure and keeping out of the Fairy-Godmother's way. Once it was over and a sense of relief set in, I dressed back out and went back to work in my area. It wasn't even thirty minutes when I was stopped by a guest. "Hey! Weren't you the pooper-scooper in the parade that was just on?! Hey kids, come here!!" If I had a crack in the pavement to melt into, I probably would have.

On busiest of days, they will run as much as four trollies at a time. When this happens, the honey bucket guy needs to be alert to the hand signs given by the trolly operators.

The hand gestering works very much like the gestering of our favorite movie critics. A thumbs up means "good show, no problem at all." The thumbs down could only mean one thing, "this show stinks!" The custodian operating as the spotter to the trollies sees these hand signals from his base on the corner of Center Street. Each passing trolly will give the appropriate signal and when the horse had done his business, the custodian takes the honey bucket in the direction the trolly had come from. Once the pile is located, the custodian pulls out a pushbroom and proceeds to "push" the pile into a nice, neat mound. Next, he pulls out a short square-end or box shovel and scoops up the mound. The neater the mound, the easier and cleaner it is to scoop. Once the mound is completely disposed into the honey bucket, the custodian will pull out a water jug and rinse the street and the shovel. As a final step, he will push the water with the pushbroom to the trolly tracks to drain from the street and dry the spot.

The procedure takes only a matter of minutes and the manure sees very little "street time." On ocassion, the spotter gets held up with one cleaning job, while another horse at the other end of Main St. makes a deposit. This causes the pile to sit and be picked on by small birds, which the kids get a big kick out of. The birds do this, because the manure in question is by far the cleanest manure you will ever see, if you live on a farm! The horses live on a well balanced diet provided by their keepers for optimum health (as well as healthy manure). So, next time you are at the Magic Kingdom or anywhere on property where horses are a part of the show, watch these daring spotters in action. You will be inpressed by how they can make farmwork look so easy.

Back to Index

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws