英语专业晨读美文-人生篇 15 The Can Man

[00:03.83]The Can Man

[00:05.83]I work in a major U.S. factory.

[00:08.75]We make refrigerators.

[00:10.60]Four thousand five hundred new refrigerators every day.

[00:13.91]It is a union shop and it's gradually shrinking

[00:17.10]as many blue collar factories seem to be but

[00:20.08]that is not what this story is about.

[00:22.09]This story is about one man who works in this huge factory.

[00:25.37]I've seen him around for years but never paid much attention.

[00:29.14]He always seemed just a little odd.

[00:31.53]A little short. A little... scruffy 1.

[00:34.24]Always the same old red ball cap.

[00:36.56]And always a garbage bag in one hand.

[00:38.40]He walks around this big old factory on his breaks

[00:41.47]and his lunch time collecting aluminum 2 cans.

[00:43.88]Day after day, month after month on hot days and cold days.

[00:48.32]Over the years I've followed him

[00:50.77]as he walked to his old pickup 3 truck on the coldest day

[00:53.09] with snow blowing and everyone with their collars

[00:55.29]turned up and their hands in their pockets.

[00:56.95]He would be there with a 40 gallon garbage bag

[01:00.49]full of aluminum cans. He'd toss it into the back of his truck

[01:04.75]and jump in and I'd reach my car and jump in

[01:07.31]and we'd all race to the exit of this big half empty parking lot.

[01:10.61]Today I was working on a broken machine in this factory

[01:13.92]and the can man came by with his bag picking up cans.

[01:17.74]Our manager was standing 4 there because the machine

[01:20.63]I was working on had been “down” for a couple of hours

[01:24.12]and he was getting worried

[01:25.45]that we might run out out of the parts for one of the assembly lines.

[01:28.80]I was finishing and I stood up just as

[01:31.06]the manager asked the can man what he did with all those cans.

[01:34.39]I'd never thought to ask him that question

[01:37.00]because I always just assumed he cashed them

[01:39.57]in at the recycle center.

[01:41.32]The can man said:“I give them to my neighbor.

[01:44.34]He's epileptic and can't hold a job.”

[01:47.61]I blurted 5 out:“your mean you've been collecting all those cans

[01:51.40]for all these years to give to your neighbor?”

[01:53.83]“It ain't much,” he said, “but I give them to him.

[01:56.27]He can't hold a job, he has too many seizures 6.”

[01:59.88]Right then and there in that factory

[02:01.82]I found myself looking smack 7 at the face of him.

[02:04.70]He was wearing a T-shirt and an old red ball cap

[02:08.73]and he had a garbage bag full of aluminum cans in his hand!

[02:11.89]I don't even know his name,

[02:13.98]but I thank him for the lesson he's taught me.