Keep Valley Clean As Boost To Friendliness

I have found a flaw in this great Valley of ours.

But before I tell you what really bothers me, I want to tell you about some of the things that please me so you don’t think I’m just some stressed-out busybody with a case of after-the-holidays blues.

One thing I like a lot is the kindness shown by the crew at the post office on Sprague near Bowdish. In all the years I’ve been around I’ve never found anyone who is more caring than these people.

During the busy holiday rush, I saw a young lady take in a package that wasn’t wrapped or ready for mailing.

One of the clerks patiently put foam pellets into the box, closed it up and sealed it with strapping tape.

At the time I thought the young lady had a lot of nerve to expect the clerk to do this.

Then it happened to me. I was rushed. I didn’t have time to run somewhere and get pellets and tape.

The clerk patiently performed the same kind service for me.

I watched them this Christmas season checking packages, always with a smile and some extra tape ready.

I’m willing to pay another cent for my stamps if this is the service I get.

I also want to offer up praise for the lady who works at Picketts and Pasttymes.

I’m one of those shoppers who drives clerks crazy. I know what I want and I won’t settle for less.

I had been told I might find an article I was looking for in this shop. The lady didn’t have it but without my asking she looked through the phone book, finding places that might have what I need, writing addresses and phone numbers down.

Janyce, who looks after the laundromat at HiCo Village, is another one who always goes the extra mile for a customer. She is constantly cleaning, always willing to come to your aid and is smiling the whole while.

So now you want to know what really bothers me?

It’s the debris I find littering the front of businesses, along sidewalks, in parking lots.

I recently walked from the University and Sprague area to the post office at Bowdish.

As I walked, I noticed things you don’t see when you’re driving in the rush of traffic.

A great many businesses in that area are littered with debris. I’m not saying it’s just this area. I haven’t had the time to walk farther.

There is one outlet store where I have shopped. I know the store is spotless inside.

But the shrubbery out front is matted with all kinds of paper junk.

Now, if I would have seen the shrubbery first, I wouldn’t have gone into that business. How would I know the inside isn’t kept up like the outside?

I know that businesses operating with a minimum of staffing can’t always send someone out to pick up junk.

But I also know Denny’s has an employee out cleaning up the litter around its business. I know the White Elephant has Dottie, who goes out with her long-handled dustpan and broom and cleans up all waste she finds in the parking lot.

I’m a firm believer that a business sells itself from the outside in.

How someone answers the phone for a business tells me exactly how much service they’re willing to extend.

How someone greets me when I walk in the door tells me how important I am to them.

And how clean - or littered - the area outside a business is makes a difference, too.

Now I understand that the businesses probably didn’t dump this junk there. And we all need to do our part of keep the Valley cleaner.

Find a receptacle for that crushed paper cup. Put the gum wrapper in your pocket if there’s no trash can at hand. Cigarette smokers, quit tossing your butts onto the ground.

Maybe I am so aware of this because I recently took a trip to the Southeast, to a city I had always wanted to visit.

I loved the trip. I enjoyed the paddle boat ride on the Mississippi River.

But you know what I remember most distinctly about this city? That it was the dirtiest place I have ever been.

Let’s not allow visitors to our lovely Valley to go home with a similar impression.

Let’s start picking up instead of throwing down.

Let’s all be good neighbors.