I haven't had a lot of occasions to speak in public. One came when I was living at Goodenough College in London back in the mid-'90s. Desiree McGraw organized a recycling group and I helped a lot with it. I'd take things out to the big recycling bin out on the street. Unfortunately, at first I didn't realize that in Britain "cans" only mean aluminum cans. (Tin cans they call "tins.") I also took some stuff up to the big recycling center in Camden Town.
A lot of beer and wine bottles accumulated in a smelly basement room. One time I was taking away a big load for recycling. When Mrs. Vickers the warden saw me carrying them, she thought they were my bottles and said, "I hadn't thought you were a drinking man." That was really funny to me because, like my parents, I never drink.
So the occasion for me to speak came near the end of my stay when my residence, William Goodenough House, had a big meeting. Unexpectedly, it was up to me to speak about the recycling program. So I got up and talked about how we were doing it and encouraged other volunteers. I did it pretty well. In fact, some people were impressed that I managed to do it in two minutes flat!
No comments:
Post a Comment