Garbage Riot in Stratton Park

[info]

With all this garbage just sitting around waiting to be picked up, I started thinking about garbage piles. Does anyone remember the Garbage "Riot" of 1975?

It was in July, and the Sanitation Men were on strike to protest layoffs. There were massive heaps of trash in front of all the buildings - and they were ripe! Well, it seems like a couple of guys that spent the day in the "Beer Bar" had just about enough of all the garbage and decided to block the intersection of Archer & Taylor with trash. Soon, almost everyone was helping (my father was the Supt. of 1475 Taylor, and this was a good way to get rid of the stuff). In just a short time, the entire 4 corners were wall to wall with garbage. The same was repeated at Archer & Beach.

Next on the scene was the 43rd Pct. Folks were pretty riled up at this time, so when the cops went to move the trash, a roar went up and they stopped. Someone ran to the church, and next Msgr. Ford was on the Radio Car's loudspeaker asking everyone to remain calm. I would like to point out that more than a few of our neighbors were still screaming when the good Monsignor was trying to speak.

A few hours later, some Sanitation supervisors showed up with a garbage truck, and that ended the big garbage strike in Stratton Park.

Does anyone else recall this?

[Marion Farrell Cronin]

I remember somebody gutting some fish, then leaving the fish heads outside of 1444 Leland Avenue to rot in the July sun. The stench, the flies......

We lived at 1442 Leland and could not open our windows for quite some time.

[marie-elena (ferracano) r]

Hey friends,
I remember the garbage strike. my aunt & uncle had the garbage piled up on the side of our driveway. the smell & bugs were horrible. i remember guys throwing those old metal garbage cans in the street.