late October walking down the alley

It's funny as I walk down the alley with my little boy on the way to school.  He holds my hand sometimes as I walk with my eyes to the ground searching  for stuff I can use in my paintings.

I stumble as I tread through stooping to pick things up or scratching the dirt to get them loose.  Would this count as part of the time it takes to make a painting...?

I'm just looking for junk  And I even mumble like an old man as I turn things over in my fingers and check both sides of it...occasionally I will drop it and say something like it needs more trucks more time

I find myself missing the old days when there was more junk everywhere when trash grew on trees and money could always be found on the street...of course none of this true I guess...though there was a time when everything was more brutal...when littering was a point of pride...

Now a well bent and crushed bottle cap is a great find...of course coffee lids are everywhere.  I can remember when smooched army men were the common litter of every alley.