EXETER — Four-year-old Ben Abel looks forward to Thursday every week.
It’s the day his grandmother, Gail, comes over to watch him while his dad, Rob, works from home. But even more exciting for Ben is another weekly visitor, the crew from Waste Management who pick up his family’s garbage and recycling.
“He loves hearing all of the trucks,” his dad said. “When he first saw the garbage trucks and recycling trucks, he was obsessed with them because they were so loud.”
Ben first heard the trucks and ran outside to see them a couple of years ago.
“From then on, it just became a routine that he was around the house when the trucks came,” Rob said. “When it was nice weather, he’d go chat with the drivers and workers.”
During winter, he watches out the window for the trucks to appear before he runs outside. There have been times that Ben is so fast his grandmother doesn’t have time to get her jacket on all the way. Another time, the young boy tripped over a snowman on his lawn in his haste to get to the trucks.
But ask Ben what his favorite part of Thursday is? “Arthur comes,” he said.
Arthur Bilodeau has been working the route for years and became buddies with Ben during his weekly trip through the neighborhood. He let Ben help push the lever to crush the debris in the back of the truck, beep the horn and watch him work. When Arthur went out for a surgery, Denny Reid and Dan DeButts took over the Exeter route. Right away, they noticed Ben and asked Arthur what he knew about the boy.
Arthur told them, “He’s always out there. That’s Ben. I’ve been seeing him since he was a little baby.”
Denny and Dan hatched a plan to do something for the boy. Rob was working in his office one trash day when he heard his dog barking incessantly. When he came downstairs, he found Ben surrounded by a huge collection of Waste Management trucks and collectibles dropped off by the two men.
“I can’t believe they did this,” Rob said. “They’ve always told my mom and Ben that he’s the bright spot of their day and they always look forward to Thursdays.”
It’s the bright spot of Ben and his grandmother’s week as well.
“Two days ago, they stopped for ten minutes chatting with them,” Rob said.
During the days that there is no trash or recycling pick up in his neighborhood, Ben makes do with YouTube videos of garbage trucks. “And every video seems to have a kid watching,” Rob said. “I thought it was common that kids watch garbage trucks, but they told me that since COVID they don’t come out as much as before.”
Lara Bricker is a former staff writer for the Exeter News-Letter, the author of the Piper Greene Exeter mysteries and an Exeter resident. She can be reached at [email protected]. An audio podcast version of Exeter Life is available on most podcast platforms and in a video format on EX-TV.
