Radio Free Montone: Garbagoo
By John Montone, 1010 WINS
Just when I thought I had heard it all came GARBA-GOO.
During the three month deep freeze that was last winter I asked a young fellow from Brooklyn just how cold it was. "It's brick," he said. And thus by playing that sound bite LIVE on 1010 WINS I achieved an "Urban Dictionary" type hipness. My tweet was retweeted by younger, cooler twitter users. @1010winsMontone said "brick."
Extreme weather often leads to extreme language. And so it was that I approached a sanitation truck early on a recent steamy morning. Day-3 of The Big BAKED Apple as I reported. Already in the upper 80's with the mercury about to climb, I talked to Will and Norris as they tossed large plastic sacks of soggy, leftover table scraps into the compactor of their truck. Will said he would rather work in icy weather because there was less of a "stink" out. Will nailed it. "Stinkin' hot," I mentally jotted.
And as the compactor grinded crushing the big bags Norris shouted for me to watch out. I understood. The wet bundles often explode as they are squished firing what sanitation men call, "splash back," behind the truck. Which is when Norris said, "Garbagoo," referring to the contents of the compactor. Vile. Rotting. Noxious. A decomposing, steaming stew called "Garbagoo."
Not since "disco rice," had someone so uniquely described just how unpleasant a task hauling household trash can be during a heat wave. It was a decade or so ago that another sanitation worker I talked to told me how he dreaded sultry weather because maggots thrived in it. "Disco rice," he called them.
Radio Free Montone: Garba-Goo
Since radio is a sound-based medium we don't spend nearly as much time taking in the smells of the city. But during one very long spell of hot weather down towners were holding their noses due to the odors emanating from the old Fulton Fish Market. And so it was with great pleasure that Editor Maloney dispatched me to sniff around. The putrid aroma arose out of buckets full of filleted fish entrails. Yet when I asked a fish monger about the stench, he said, "It smells pretty good to me." And that allowed me to end my story with, "One man's carp is another man's cologne."
So take your choice; decaying fish, maggots or GARBAGOO. Because in New York City when it's hot, it's stinkin' hot.
