Shopping Cart Series: Smell Ya Later


by on Jul 22nd, 2009

shopping-cart-parks-dept-dyker2

I was so young when they took me away from my first home. It was so long ago, I can’t even remember where I came from.

All of the identifying markers on my metal frame have been erased and worn off by hard labor, and the only thing left is a carved out W birthmark. My friends, Rubbermaid Mop Bucket & Wringer (nicknamed 31-quart), Mrs. Mop, Mobile Trashy, and PushBroom all say that the W means I once was a part of the Waldbaum’s family. I think that’s just the manufacturer’s branding.

This is not such a bad life, really. Mainly, because my friends are there for me. Sometimes they don’t really get me, though — because I was kidnapped and they were purchased specifically by the parks department. In a way, I feel like I don’t belong, but I try not to dwell on it for too long.

Life is rough out here in Dyker Beach Park, but it’s not so bad in the summer when Marty Golden works on getting elected again with these free concerts. Maybe the crowd might be better if they had to pay a couple dollars for entry. I should just be glad I’m not at Asser Levy — or even worse, wandering the streets alone in Sheepshead Bay. Rumor has it, that over there shopping carts are kidnapped from their homes, tied up to trees,  locked up behind bars, then just abandoned.

The other shopping cart here at Dyker — a real loner that guy is — told me, in a rare talkative moment, that he had put up such a ruckus when he was at Wingate Field that  they had to move him over to Prospect Park. The music they played there made him wild, so they brought him to Asser Levy where the summer concert crowd tamed him into submission.  He’s just a shell of a cart now and wouldn’t even allow himself to be photographed for the series.

Not me. I’m jumping at the opportunity to be featured here in the slight chance that maybe, just maybe, someone out there will recognize me after all these years — and I’ll be rolled outta here.  Being stationed at this park, meant there was always a toilet nearby. But after all these years I need to say “smell ya later!” to my life, here. I will be sad, though, to say goodbye to my lifelong chums. Oh, well, I guess I’ll have to steel myself up.

So, if anyone out there thinks they know my loved ones, please let them know where I’m at.

Related posts

Tags: , ,

  • http://www.nedberke.com Ned Berke

    You are a sick, twisted individual, Ray. Just… sick…

    Poor cart.

  • http://www.NedBerke.com Ned Berke

    You are a sick, twisted individual, Ray. Just… sick…

    Poor cart.

  • Ray Johnson

    Well, I wasn’t the one who kidnapped the poor thing.

  • Ray Johnson

    Well, I wasn’t the one who kidnapped the poor thing.

  • http://www.nedberke.com Ned Berke

    You sure? You must be doing SOMETHING to get all these photos of stranded shopping carts…

  • http://www.NedBerke.com Ned Berke

    You sure? You must be doing SOMETHING to get all these photos of stranded shopping carts…

  • http://www.antsrants.webs.com/ Anthony

    This cart has obviously fallen victim to a vicious black market slavery ring. I’ve heard about these shopping carts that get stolen from their host store, often brainwashed, stripped of any identifiers, repainted and relocated. For what nefarious means they ultimately serve, few can know for sure. This poor lost soul must have escaped it’s binds, and wandered around the streets aimlessly on its stuttering wheels that veer to the left. I only hope the picture here prompts an ownership claim from somebody who is still willing to care for our four-wheeled, basket-backed friend. Sadly, many owners deny responsibility for their own carts after seeing them as damaged goods no longer fit to serve them.

  • http://www.antsrants.webs.com Anthony

    This cart has obviously fallen victim to a vicious black market slavery ring. I’ve heard about these shopping carts that get stolen from their host store, often brainwashed, stripped of any identifiers, repainted and relocated. For what nefarious means they ultimately serve, few can know for sure. This poor lost soul must have escaped it’s binds, and wandered around the streets aimlessly on its stuttering wheels that veer to the left. I only hope the picture here prompts an ownership claim from somebody who is still willing to care for our four-wheeled, basket-backed friend. Sadly, many owners deny responsibility for their own carts after seeing them as damaged goods no longer fit to serve them.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

    Well, Anthony, at least one cart owner has shown some concern about the cart slavery cartel.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001/3755632051/

    It’s a sad state of affairs here. If Ray hadn’t exposed this horrid crime trend it might have gotten far worse. The perpetrators thought that after they were finished with these poor carts they could just cast them aside like yesterday’s newspaper and no one would even notice. One of these days Ray will catch them in the act, and then they will be terribly sorry they embarked upon this life of crime.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001/ Lisanne!

    Well, Anthony, at least one cart owner has shown some concern about the cart slavery cartel.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001/3755632051/

    It’s a sad state of affairs here. If Ray hadn’t exposed this horrid crime trend it might have gotten far worse. The perpetrators thought that after they were finished with these poor carts they could just cast them aside like yesterday’s newspaper and no one would even notice. One of these days Ray will catch them in the act, and then they will be terribly sorry they embarked upon this life of crime.

  • http://www.antsrants.webs.com/ Anthony

    Too bad implanted homing devices wouldn’t be cost-effective. The whereabouts of the carts could be monitored on a radar screen covering a map of the city. Where I live, the local Big-Lots regularly sends an employee in a pick-up truck to scour the streets and gather all the lost carts. Now that I think about it, one of those carts could be pretty useful for yard work. It could probably hold a bag of potting soil along with some shovels, trowels and a smaller cooler for beer. No wonder those carts are so popular!

  • http://www.antsrants.webs.com Anthony

    Too bad implanted homing devices wouldn’t be cost-effective. The whereabouts of the carts could be monitored on a radar screen covering a map of the city. Where I live, the local Big-Lots regularly sends an employee in a pick-up truck to scour the streets and gather all the lost carts. Now that I think about it, one of those carts could be pretty useful for yard work. It could probably hold a bag of potting soil along with some shovels, trowels and a smaller cooler for beer. No wonder those carts are so popular!