Revisions and Corrections — by Tom

I’ve been busy.

It’s the only excuse I could come up with to explain why I haven’t visited Tom and Charlotte in the past couple weeks. I didn’t forget. How could I possibly? I manage at least three sightings per week. High Street. Congress. Court. Mill. Palmer. Sometimes I get a wave and sometimes I can’t even see them because their backseat is jammed with cans to the ceiling.

I just returned from their apartment. I rarely leave there in under two hours it seems. No complaints. I enjoy their company and I think they reciprocate the sentiment. When I walked through their door earlier this evening Tom handed me an annotated version of the original Post story before I even hit my usual spot on the couch. I swallowed hard and instantly started apologizing and making excuses. If ever there was a story I didn't want to mess up it was theirs. The following are his commentary and revisions. He keeps this annotated version with him while "scrounging" (a new verb introduced this evening) to show and explain to students if ever he's identified and asked about the article. Thus far, no one has.


1) Tom Cullums and Charlotte Buck love parties, but not for the socialization or alcohol. They’re there for the empties.

"We love socialization — and alcohol."

2) “That wouldn’t be fair to monopolize on the collectin’ when other people are in the same situation as us — struggling to survive,” he said.

"Well how could we monopolize? There are just too many cans."

3) Cullums was a handyman and car mechanic for most of his life, but with a bad heart and a troublesome back, he said it’s been difficult to hold a labor-intensive job.

"... and diabetes and a hernia."

4) The couple collects in the late morning to early afternoon hours on weekends, reducing interaction with college students. “Rarely do we run into an asshole,” he said.

Despite the dog bites, broken glass, rusted metal, occasional slurred insults and weather, they scrape together a living from collecting cans and metal in their beat-up Chevy.

He reiterated the fact that they've only run into a few assholes in their near-two-decade can collecting career in Athens. That's a pretty good record, he said.

Also,
Correction: The interior, with the exception of the two front seats, is reduced to pure metal and the doors are hollow to increase their take, limited to about 150 pounds.

I don't know whether Tom mentioned it on purpose or simply in passing, but the car can actually hold about 250 pounds when the cans are crushed.