At Large in Ballard by Peggy Sturdivant

When I closed my eyes last Saturday night I could still see litter. It's called retinal fatigue when the days' images continue to play after your eyes are closed. Cigarette butts and more cigarette butts, pieces of Styrofoam, bottle caps, plastic bags fished out of storm drains like weeds with long roots. At first I couldn't stop picking up trash in my dreams.

Five days earlier I'd decided to organize a Northwest 24th Street Clean-up to coincide with first day of the Sustainable Ballard Festival. My hasty preparations involved support and supplies from Rob Mattson at Ballard's Neighborhood Center; distributing flyers to businesses on Northwest 24th and then informing my street that we had "adopted" Northwest 24th. To sweeten the pot I threw in the Dreyer's Ice Cream Party for 100 that I had ostensibly won for the block earlier in the summer. I announced the event on my blog, sent emails to several property owners with particularly "trashed" sites and then set up base on the northwest corner of 58th and 24th on Saturday morning.

The sidewalks were busy; the northbound seeking pastries and coffee, the southbound headed to the Sustainable Ballard Festival or using Ballard as a parking lot for a Fremont event. My daughter and I set out gloves and grabbers, the bright yellow Community Clean-Up trash bags and the Ice Cream Social signs. We started raking, but I was thinking, "what if no one shows up?"

Then Bay View Condominiums resident Jeanette Plutchok crossed to our corner. As Rob Mattson had said of the Plutchoks, "they have been very willing to take some direct action concerning their immediate environment." That seemed an understatement as Jeannette fitted herself with gloves like a knight donning armor. She was initially unsure about the grabber but after two hours she was a convert. She had used the grabber as an extension of her already tall self, wrestling a cardboard box underneath the chain-link fence of the soon-to-be demolished property at the corner of 58th as though it was a doomed rattlesnake.

Then neighbors arrived, Kris Cromwell with three twelve year-old girls gleeful at the prospect of using grabbers; a father and three year-old son, Kris' husband, a family of four from the block. From 24th Northwest came Jeff Birkner, owner of Austin Cantina, and Rachel, an employee and full-time teacher. A woman named Ricia appeared; she'd read about the clean up on-line; was it all right if she started near the end of her own street?

I'd promised just two hours of work followed by ice cream. At noon the twelve-year olds proudly showed me their haul from just the old library grounds, including decayed books, rotting clothes, empty nip bottles and a pick-ax. Jeannette returned from northern parts exclaiming over an improved alley. Ricia also came down 24th with her yellow bag, beaming. Everyone was obviously satisfied by their efforts; sucker vines cut along the fence, volunteer locust tree trimmed, recyclables sorted and eight yellow bags piled on the corner. It wasn't a big turnout - but then again it was just enough.

We washed our hands and set the table with twelve flavors of ice cream. Three young helpers, Shea, Nadia and Miguel took their places as official scoopers. Jeannette and Jeff introduced themselves. Rachel's two children appeared. Miguel had four cups of the Caramel Swirl and a long-married couple demonstrated their sharing techniques. There were dogs and toddlers, a mysterious man from the van parked nearby and people passing by that I hadn't seen in months. Suddenly the rush was over but there was still ice cream. Shea suggested a planning and that's how they decided to load the ice cream into a recovered shopping cart and wheel over to the Sustainable Ballard Festival.

Perhaps because they were shouting "Free Ice Cream" down into skate bowl and by the booths, business was brisk. It felt heady to be part of a bigger event. I recognized a poet at the recycle station and bought a slice of freshly delivered pizza. With ringing and shouting, a red "Conference Bicycle" pulled up by organic produce, looking like a Tilting Teacups ride with seven people facing one another and everyone peddling. "Jump on," someone yelled, so to my backwards surprise we left Ballard Commons behind, and peddled east to 17th and north to 63rd, all of trying hand signals while navigating city streets. It seemed like a dream in which you can fly.

That night when I first closed my eyes all I could see was the litter, but I pushed myself past that until I could see the ice cream containers, Nadia walking away with her pick-ax, Ricia coming towards me with a satisfied smile. I pictured the pile of filled yellow bags and the raked parking strips. Then I allowed myself to remember the ride on the big red bike, seven strangers all facing one another and laughing as we coasted downhill.

Peggy's e-mail atlargeinballard@yahoo.com and she writes additional pieces on the Ballard Webtown at http:/blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/admin/