# Stupid Garbos **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 31, 2002, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936 "2002-12-31T20:27:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936/21 "2003-01-01T07:25:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ninevah \* > \*\*[gripe] > Tut, tut. Why does EVERYONE assume that urban (or paid) firefighters are always professional and that volunteer/unpaid firefighters aren’t professional? > [/gripe] > \*\* _Professional_ in the strict sense of the word - being paid for it. It wasn’t a slight on their abilities. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936/22 "2003-01-01T07:53:31Z")
My apologies for the further hijack, but I’ve just remembered what we used to call our rubbish collection folk, before it all went high-tech. We used to call 'em “dusties” here, short for “dustmen”, as in: [sings][“My old man’s a dustman, he wear’s a dustman’s hat …”](http://www.webfitz.com/lyrics/Lyrics/1960/291960.html) [/sings]. ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936/23 "2003-01-01T08:33:52Z")
The peopple who used to empty the dunnies were called “night watchmen” when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Mame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@Mame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mame)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936/24 "2003-01-01T08:43:23Z")
I knew the terms “dunny can man” and “honey pot collector” for the men who used to empty the dunny. The small lanes between the backs of houses in inner city Sydney were “dunny can lanes”. You could (prolly still can) look down a dunny can lane and see a row of small pointed roofs either side of the lane, like small urban temples! ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936/25 "2003-01-01T08:58:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by reprise \* > \*\*The peopple who used to empty the dunnies were called “night watchmen” when I was a kid. \*\* Ditto. They were gone a decade before I was born in Auckland, **reprise** , but here they were called “night watchmen” or “night men”, with the night carts carrying away the night soil. Used to scare the daylights out of impressionable kids with th’ rattling, so I understand. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936/26 "2003-01-01T10:22:02Z")
I have always wanted to be known as a **cockie** , but not for tilling of the soil. 😃 Quasi ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936/27 "2003-01-01T10:34:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TheLoadedDog \* > \*\*I thought “garbo” would cause some confusion. 😃 > > I guess we’d better not mention ambos, firies, brown bombers, sparkies, chippies, sheeties, snappers, pollies, cockies, posties… \*\* \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*’ No NO!! PLEASE do!!! They sound fascinating!!! ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936/28 "2003-01-01T20:52:51Z")
Since the Connies (the term for tram conductors down here in Vic and the equivalent to what **TLD** called Snappers) have gone from our trams, we now have The Gumbies…dressed like stormtroopers and all closet sadists. You always know when there is a Gumbie Attack about to happen because a cry goes up on the tram “Gumbies Ahead” and everyone without a ticket leaps off at the next stop. Alas, sometimes the on-tram attack is just a decoy, and there are packs of them waiting at the stop to pounce upon the ticketless travellers who attempt to do a runner. David Attenborough would be very impressed with the antics of these wild animals. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936/29 "2003-01-01T21:01:16Z")
[…sheepishly raising hand…] Another Greta Garbo sucker here. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936/30 "2003-01-01T21:44:03Z")
Just a note from a man who has earned his living as a garbageman: be tolerant of those so afflicted. Of course, you are a decent sort, nobody doubts that. But your neighbor is a pig. ---
**Author:** ![Khadro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Khadro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadro)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936/31 "2003-01-02T00:24:28Z")
If we can just go back to the OP for a second… my mother works in what I shall call the “Garbologist Organization Department” (GOD) of our local council, one that is I believe, shared with TheLoadedDog. The Straight Dope (I’ve **always** wanted to say that) on this is that it is much much cheaper to pay those what do the collectin’ to work on public holidays than it is to get them to work double length shifts. I’ve never cared to ask about Xmas day and Good Friday, but for most other public holidays, there will be GOD’s workers picking up your garbage. But again, it should be in your local newspaper if there are any changes. One other reason is that a lot of them actually work two jobs. Being a Garbo means you start at (sometimes) 2:30am, and work through until about 8:30. Many of them then go on to work on Road Crews, and for the Parks & Gardens Dept, which knocks off about 4:30. There are other crews (much smaller) that will go around and pick up whatever the main crews missed (which happens often), as well as things like roadkill, and other refuse that is disrupting traffic etc… But unless you are a bastard, you will not ring and say it was missed just because you forgot, as it goes on the drivers record as a missed pickup, when it’s really just a lazy homeowner. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936/32 "2003-01-02T05:59:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Khadro \* > \*\* > But unless you are a bastard, you will not ring and say it was missed just because you forgot, as it goes on the drivers record as a missed pickup, when it’s really just a lazy homeowner. \*\* Nah…I’m just a lazy homeowner. HOWEVER…I’ve just realised, from **Thylacine’s** heads-up, that I haven’t recieved a local paper in yonks [trans: a very long time]. Now _that_, I **will** start whingeing about…tomorrow! It’s all ‘The Leader’s’ fault. 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-garbos/145936.md?page=1)