eighth wonder
During the day Carl and Enzo attend classes up at the School of Architecture; they appear to be just another couple of nerdy looking grad students toting laptops and backpacks filled with 30 lb textbooks.
But Carl and Enzo are not your ordinary architecture students destined to design the next generation of Arby's and Bed Bath and Beyond. They want to build the city of the future. A city unlike any other city, housing thousands of low income families, perhaps somewhere in South America. Their city will be built totally of recycled materials, using stuff that people in the United States throw away everyday. Carl and Enzo have collected at last count 431,276 empty cigarette fliptop boxes. Their apartment downtown is overflowing. Karl and Enzo sleep on the floor in the living room because their bedroom is crammed with neatly stacked white and gold Camel Light boxes, red and white Marlboro boxes, blue Newport boxes. The bathroom is 75% filled to capacity, the closets are brimming. Carl and Enzo rent a garage in Dryden that houses 32,752 empty cigarette packs. Another storage unit in Danby is packed floor to ceiling with 24, 524 precisely stacked red and white 1 ½” x 1” x .3 inch boxes all donated by a smoker named Dave Jacobs. Once a month Carl and Enzo make a pilgrimage to Dave Jacob's grave site in Holy Name cemetery. They promised Dave before he passed away from a combination of cancer, heart disease and asthma that they would name a street in their city after him. The Dave Jacobs Blvd. Dave would have liked to think that his life counted for something.
Smokers all over Tompkins are knowingly or unknowingly contributing to the city of the future. Carl and Enzo approach people on the Commons, huddled in doorways, stamping their feet to keep warm as they puff away. The two wannabe city planners talk with mounting excitement, and will occasionally yank out a cardboard tube from their backpacks and roll out a detailed plan of the a city they plan to build for the poor, a city that recycles, built entirely of those annoying little cardboard boxes that you never know what to do with after you’ve finished the pack. 25% of the folks Carl and Enzo talk to have tried to recycle those suckers themselves, using them to house anything from paperclips to discarded razor blades. A farmer out in Groton actually shredded his empty Camel boxes into chicken snacks. Carl and Enzo gladly accept donations. They’ll come out to your house in their rusty VW bus and collect your contributions to the city of the future. Neither Carl or Enzo smoke. They exchange knowing smiles as they load the empties into the van. Maybe they're hip to the fact that most smokers won't live to the city of the future.
You can call them at this cell phone number to arrange a pickup. (315)472-9875.
Carl and Enzo estimate that they will need in the neighborhood of 4 billion packs to get the ball rolling, another 50 billion to complete the square mile wide project. Carl and Enzo have done the math. They're saving up to go to China next year to visit another wonder of the world, the Great Wall, and start canvassing for donations.
Carl and Enzo. Thinking outside the box. That's what they train you to do up there on the hill.
Comments invited at: ezrakidder@gmail.com - Peace, Ezra at 8:52 AM
